Biden, in a Burst of Climate Orders, Rejoins the Paris Agreement
The New York Times.
Jan 20 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/climate/biden-paris-climate-agreement.html



President Biden signed an executive order on the Paris climate agreement in the Oval Office on Wednesday.   

WASHINGTON — President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday recommitted the United States to the Paris climate agreement, the international accord designed to avert catastrophic global warming, and ordered federal agencies to start reviewing and reinstating more than 100 environmental regulations that were weakened or rolled back by former President Donald J. Trump.

The moves represent a first step in healing one of the deepest rifts between the United States and the rest of the world after Mr. Trump defiantly rejected the Paris pact and seemed to relish his administration’s push to weaken or undo major domestic climate policies.   

Mr. Biden has elevated tackling the climate crisis among his highest priorities. In addition to curbing global warming, he has vowed that ending the coronavirus pandemic, restoring the economy and addressing racial injustice will be the central causes of his administration.

“We’re going to combat climate change in a way we have not before,” Mr. Biden said in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, just before signing the executive orders. Even so, he cautioned: “They are just executive actions. They are important but we’re going to need legislation for a lot of the things we’re going to do.”



Foreign leaders hailed Mr. Biden’s first moves as a powerful signal that the United States, the largest contributor to global warming in history, intends to restart its efforts to lower pollution levels and to restore the international order upended by Mr. Trump. “Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!” Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said in a Twitter message.


Under the Paris Agreement, nearly 200 nations have vowed to reduce planet warming emissions to avert the most disastrous consequences of climate change. A letter to the United Nations signed by Mr. Biden on Wednesday formally starts the 30-day process of bringing the United States back into the accord.   

But analysts cautioned that Mr. Biden’s actions on day one must be quickly followed by a series of aggressive domestic climate policies to drastically lower the country’s emissions of planet-warming pollution from tailpipes, smokestacks and oil and gas wells.

Also on Wednesday, Mr. Biden rescinded the construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have transported carbon-heavy oil from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast. Earlier in the day, TC Energy, a Canadian company, said that it was suspending work on the line.



But the lengthy legal process of undoing most of Mr. Trump’s environmental rollbacks and replacing them with new regulations could take many years and is likely to be strewn with political land mines if Republicans or business groups fight against them.

This is indeed good news.

Without some leadership from the US we would never get going on working as one planet to address planetary issues.

Bobby. wrote on Jan 21^st, 2021 at 4:09pm:


No, but this is the stuff that needs to be sorted.

My point is, without the US in the club, it provides an excuse for other countries to not play properly. if all the super countries join and lead, there is a chance to influence all the other major polluters.

Bobby. wrote on Jan 21^st, 2021 at 4:28pm:


Yes, so the best chance is for the world to pull together to address. if every country but China and India comply then they will be pressured to do so as well. If the US is out, they have the excuse not to cleanup their act. With the US in, there is a chnce for the world to work together on this critical man made issue.

Super Nova wrote on Jan 21^st, 2021 at 4:50pm:



Which parts are critical? The parts that have already come or the ones in the distant future?

Edit: BTW- because it is an agreement there is no compulsion.

Super Nova wrote on Jan 21^st, 2021 at 7:53pm:



Only with a One World Government. But who or what country would lead that?

Bobby. wrote on Jan 21^st, 2021 at 4:28pm:




not according to this report bobby...


Despite the 2015 agreement, global carbon emissions increased 1.7 percent in 2017 and a further 2.7 percent in 2018; it has been estimated that the rate of increase in 2019 will be among the highest on record. The last four years have been the hottest on record, with 2019 on track to make it five.


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/climate-change-report-car...

You could be Ted Cruz who thought the Paris agreement involved the actual people of Paris.