A Promising President’s Plan
Image of Joe Biden
During Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, he claimed that he was going to make climate change a top priority for his government. On his first day in office, he announced that the US would be rejoining the Paris Agreement despite his predecessor Donald Trump’s withdrawal in 2016. This is an important agreement between all countries to prevent the worst of climate change.
Recently, in Rome, after attending the G20 summit (a meeting for the 20 world’s most developed countries) Biden and his government representatives expressed hope that this meeting would make countries act faster in Glasgow.
The US is the world’s biggest economy and second biggest emitter of carbon gases and will therefore play a massive role in COP26. Biden’s Democrats are planning a big investment (spending lots of money) to prevent climate change through a key budget bill. However, this awaits a vote in Congress (which is their parliament). It is the subject of very difficult debates.
Previously, President Biden has deemed that this is a “decisive decade” for resolving climate change. The USA has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030. This doubles the promises they made before.
Russia, China and India, however, have made no new commitments. Joe Biden has also expressed today that everyone “should be disappointed” that Russia and China “basically didn’t show up” to COP26, as he is himself disheartened by the lack of effort and interest in the crisis by these countries as the “health of communities across the world depend on it.”
In spite of this, oil and gas production in the USA are now on track to expand by 17 and 12%, respectively, by 2030. The UN Emissions Gap Report released this week highlights that the world is on track to grow hotter by a fatal 2.7C degrees.
So, this raises questions whether or not the US government and Joe Biden are willing to sacrifice economic growth in exchange for the future of Planet Earth and mankind. “A decisive decade”, destruction or development?
By Clare Winetrobe and Carys Fury
