Will Biden’s climate goal still matter under Trump?
The Biden Administration’s Last-Ditch Effort to Keep the United States on Track to Climate Goals is Symbolic
Trump has dismissed climate change as a hoax and is threatening to pull the US out of the Paris agreement. So Biden’s last-ditch effort to keep the US on track to meet global climate goals is more symbolic — seemingly designed to encourage a grassroots movement in defiance of Trump’s national agenda.
White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said in a call with reporters that they see decarbonization efforts to reduce their emissions in many ways achieving escape velocity, an inexorable path.
It helps that new solar and onshore wind farms have become cheaper sources of electricity than coal or gas. Most new sources of electricity coming to connect to the US power grids are carbon-free. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have also authorized hundreds of billions of dollars of funding for clean energy. The US is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by the end of the decade, thanks to current policies.
The White House announcement was praised by the U.S. Climate Alliance. “The country’s climate-leading governors will carry the torch forward,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York. “This new collective goal will serve as our North Star, guiding us in the years to come and keeping America on track toward a cleaner, safer future.”
The Biden administration argues that programs it developed won’t go away just because there’s a new president with different policies. renewable energy projects will continue to operate during Biden’s time in office
“Subnational leaders in the United States can continue to show the world that American climate leadership is determined by so much more than whoever sits in the Oval Office,” said John Podesta, senior advisor to the President for international climate policy.
The New Goal of Climate Diplomacy: Rejuvenating the U.S. Transition to Renewable Energy and Reinvigorating Fossil Fuel Production
The new goal could be achieved through various efforts, according to officials from the Biden administration.
The email said that President Trump would deliver clean air and water for Americans in his second term and that it was from the Trump transition team.
But President-elect Trump plans to reverse the country’s transition to renewable energy and reinvigorate climate-heating fossil fuel production, even though federal data from the Energy Information Administration show that the country already “produces more crude oil than any country, ever.”
Nationally Determined Contributions are the new goals of climate diplomacy. The main goal of the 2015Paris climate agreement is to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say that’s needed to avoid some of the worst-case scenarios that come with a hotter climate.
