Joe Biden and the US return to the Paris Agreement

While President Donald Trump had stated from the outset the intention of the United States to abandon the Paris Agreement (signed with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions), this was just last Wednesday.

The electoral defeat of the Republican candidate radically changes the North American country’s environmental agenda, since future President Joe Biden has already announced that will be reintegrated into the climate pact.

After signing in 2016, with 200 countries involved, in 2019 Trump rejected the agreement, notifying the United Nations that United States it will not be part of the agreement.

The path devised by Trump was affected by his electoral defeat, and for Biden, it will not be more complex to be part of it again. In just 30 days, once your reinstatement is signed, the U.S. will be back to the Paris Agreement.

With this, and as noted, Biden will renew the United States’ commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, at least 26% below 2005 levels. The commitment is to achieve it by 2025.

Pilar Moraga, researcher at the Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR) 2 and deputy director of the Center for Environmental Law of the Law School of the University of Chile, confirms that strictly speaking, the United States will only be out of the agreement for a few months.

The first thing to know is that the Paris Agreement is part of, or is signed under the auspices of the Framework Convention on climate change in 1992. “This is important for the purposes of entering or leaving the agreement. In fact, according to article 20, it is open to signature or accession only by the parties to the convention, and the United States never ceased to be a party. of the convention, ”says Moraga.

Sara Larraín, director of Chile Sustentable, states that the return of the United States as a member of the Paris Agreement is key, “First because it is the second largest emitter of CO2, after China, and its absence allowed justifications from many nations, especially the oil-producing countries and those that excuse development rights ”.

“When the Kyoto thing happened, which they signed but later Congress did not ratify, the same thing happened. America has always been a party to the convention, but it was never part of the Kyoto protocol, and now, it was part of the Paris Agreement, but this agreement was left out ”, adds the researcher from (CR) 2.

Larraín points out that the return of the United States is a sign of hope, “that all countries will assume responsibilities for according to your CO2 footprint. Additionally, it is a signal for investors and stock markets (the financial sector) that there will be no paradises of exception for CO2 emissions ”.

Moraga explains that Article 20 of the Paris Agreement establishes that there is a period for signing the agreement, which was between April 22, 2016 and April 21, 2017, “and that after that period, it is left open for accession. So that is open to all those countries that are part of the convention, it is an indefinite period.”

“It is expected that from the moment Biden takes office, from day one, he could sign and adhere to the agreement. And this becomes effective within 30 days. There are no penalties, no fines “, adds the researcher from CR2.

It is no longer possible to stabilize at 1.5 degrees, because this year “the NOA has already recognized that we are going at a 1.2 degree increase. But at least will allow us to aspire to stabilize at 2 degrees, and not 3.5 degrees, which is expected in relation to the commitments made in the Paris Agreement ”, adds Larraín.

The same Paris Agreement establishes a procedure to get out of it, that procedure says that you can only leave three years after signing and after that it becomes effective within a year. And that was effective on recent November 4, Moraga states. “At the end of February it could return,” he says.

Moraga explains that “the important thing is that, according to the new president Biden, is that he intends to move forward towards carbon neutrality. This political commitment is important because he committed US $ 2 billion as an investment in climate change, which is 10% of the United States’ GDP ”.

And this links it to the economic relaunch and employment, “then we are in a scenario in which the president says that the economic reactivation after all that all the countries have experienced (pandemic), is going to be done with investment in renewable energy”Moraga points out.

“If the United States enters with this approach that Biden has announced, of this economic reactivation in projects and investments that are compatible with the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, it is going to be very relevant to lead all the countries of the planet towards more ambitious goals ”, concludes Moraga.