Bringing America back to “Paris” is easy. Joe Biden made that promise from his campaign on the first day of his presidency. But with the real step towards joining the Global Climate Agreement, he waited until this week: to determine the United States’ ‘national contribution’ to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Shortly before the start of Biden’s climate conference today and tomorrow, the American media announced that the President’s pledge to the rest of the world would be ‘almost 50 percent’: by 2030, US emissions will be more than half. 2005.
This is an ambitious goal internationally. Biden wants to challenge other countries so that the United States can play a key role in the fight against global warming.
George W.. Bush has little to do with climate
To do so, his diplomats, such as Special Climate Ambassador John Kerry and Secretary of State Anthony Blingen, would have to swallow some embarrassment. Because under Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement. This is not the first time in a short period of time that a Republican leader has signed a climate pact with a Democratic leader. Bush has little to do with the Kyoto Protocol signed by Bill Clinton.
Yet Republicans in Congress are opposed to international climate policy. “The Biden administration is setting tough targets for the United States, while our adversaries continue to do what they do. It will not solve climate change,” said Wyoming Senator John Barroso.
But among the American electorate, the majority is now in favor of a bold climate policy. In a recent poll by TV network CBS, 56 percent said something should be done immediately, and 11 percent said it should be done ‘within a few years’. Only 33 percent say they have nothing to do, or only for a long time. One-third of them say there is no global warming, one-third say there are very important things, and a quarter say nothing can be done about it, and the rest are all very expensive.
Biden wants to spend billions
Biden says he has enough money to deal with the climate problem – he hopes Congress will give it to him. In his built-back Better project to revive the economy he submitted there, Biden wants to allocate billions of measures to help restore climate-friendly infrastructure such as bridges and roads: home insulation, increase solar and wind power generation, expand public transport and gas from old mines and oil. Stop leaks and set up a climate corps, in which young people come forward to work on climate aid programs.
Congress has to agree to this – with their 50 votes (per 100) in the Senate, Republicans are threatening to block the plan. So far, Biden insists he does not want to push the package with 50 Democratic votes and the votes of Vice President Kamala Harris: he has promised to get cooperation during his campaign. But so far he has had little success in it.
Consumers were rarely induced
Although the package is accepted, the World Resource Organization thinks that US climate policy is mainly characterized by federal government actions. In the private sector, Biden wants to set stricter requirements for key emissions sources such as car manufacturers and power producers. But in other sectors, companies and consumers are not motivated to change their behavior in a climate-friendly manner.
One way to do that is to set a price by selling permits for greenhouse gas emissions or by taxing emissions. Little has been heard of this from Pita so far.
Also read:
Trump is trashing ‘Paris’ deals, but how exactly?
President Trump cannot pull out of the climate deal. The cancellation will only be true by the end of 2020.
