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A few days ago, on the Wednesday day after the presidential elections, the United States formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Now that Joe Biden has won and became the country’s next president, it is clear that America’s time out of the Paris Agreement will be a brief hiatus.
Biden tweeted Wednesday “Today, the Trump administration officially abandoned the Paris Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, the Biden administrations will re-enter.”
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1324158992877154310
When Joe Biden takes office on January 20, it will be easy for him to win back the United States in the Paris Agreement. He can make the decision himself through a presidential order. This is how the agreement is designed. All you have to do then is send a statement to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, that the United States wants to return to the Paris Agreement and submit a plan for the country’s national climate commitments. Then 30 days pass before the United States joins.
At the end of February Then the United States is once again in the agreement where almost 200 of the world’s countries have committed to working to limit climate change and, among other things, keep global warming well below 2 degrees.
This is good news for the global climate and a fitting gift just in time for the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. It falls on December 12 of this year and will be celebrated by the countries that remain in the agreement.
The mood will be much better now that America will soon be there again.
For global climate work, it is crucial that the United States, the world’s second-largest emitting country with 15 percent of global emissions, and the world’s largest economy, are now engaged in cooperation again.
Joe Biden was vice president under President Obama, who purposely worked for the climate. Obama’s good contacts with China led countries to cooperate on the climate, which was crucial for the Paris Agreement to become a reality and as ambitious as it came to be.
Where Trump has taken America off the international playing field for four years, Joe Biden aims to return. He promised to invite him to an international climate summit already during his first 100 days in power.
In his campaign, Joe Biden has launched the most ambitious climate plan ever.
The “Build Back Better” plan will invest US $ 2 billion to restructure and stimulate the economy with renewable energy, secure, high-paying jobs in new industries in green industries, and address inequality issues.
It will also appoint a council, similar to Sweden’s climate policy council, which will deal with climate and environmental issues. It will be run by a “czar”, one name that has come up is John Kerry, who was Secretary of State under Obama.
America must also become carbon neutral until 2050. These signals are important for global climate work. The EU already has the same goal and is now discussing improving it. Recently, both Japan and South Korea announced that they are also aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050 and China has recently said that they will be climate neutral by 2060.
Biden’s victory means that the world’s three largest economies and the EU have set carbon neutrality targets.
Trump has withdrawn nearly 100 environmental and climate regulations. Most of the restrictions or changes have been made by the US equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, and affect everything from restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power plants, trucking to the elimination of protection rules for more than half of the country’s wetlands; and simplified rules for mercury emissions from power plants. According to a New York Times review, 99 changes have been made, 72 have been implemented, and 27 are being considered.
Joe Biden will aim to reverse that trend. Some rule changes can be reversed through a presidential order, but how you go about other matters will depend on the support you receive in the Senate and Congress.
Vice President Kamala Harris is a strong supporter of the future president on climate. She is not only the first female vice president of the United States. She comes from California, perhaps the most progressive and climate-conscious state in the United States, and has big ambitions in climate work, probably even higher than Joe Biden.
The outcome of the US elections is extremely important for the climate. What happens in the next four years is critical if climate change can slow down enough to achieve climate goals.
Almost exactly two years ago, the UN climate panel, the IPCC, stated in a report that if the world wants to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming around 1.5 degrees, global emissions must be cut. in the middle by 2030. It is urgent, was the clear message. Then the world had 12 years to reach the goals, since then two years have passed, now there are only 10 years left and all the work remains.
Climate is a big winner in the US presidential election. The year 2020, which before the corona pandemic, would have been the “super environmental year”, has now received positive news in November.
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