United States officially re-joins Paris climate agreement overturning Donald Trump's decision to exit
- par Amanda Heroux
- dans Science
- — Fév 19, 2021
Kerry went on to say, "we have nine years left" to "avert the worst consequences" of the climate crisis. "A cry for survival comes from the planet itself", Biden said in his inaugural address.
"Today's the day. We're officially back in the Paris Agreement - again part of the global climate effort".
While the return is heavily symbolic, world leaders have said they expect the United States to prove its seriousness upon the nation's return to the fold. They are especially anticipating an announcement in coming months on its goal for cutting damaging emissions from burning coal and petroleum by 2030.
Biden has promised to chart a path toward net-zero United States emissions by 2050.
The president signed an executive order on his first day in office reversing the pullout ordered by Mr Trump.
President Joe Biden's administration submitted to the United Nations a document to return to the agreement hours after he was inaugurated on January 20.
On Thursday, White House adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said the extreme winter weather conditions in Texas and many other states across the central and southern United States this week are a reminder that climate change is real. She was one of the leading forces in hammering out the mostly voluntary 2015 agreement in which nations set their own goals to reduce greenhouse gases.
The groups also said the US government should provide $400 million over four years to the smaller Adaptation Fund, another U.N. -linked fund that boosts climate resilience in poor nations.
She added that the real issue was four years of climate inaction by the Trump administration, as American cities, states and businesses still worked to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide but without the federal government. "It's not about how many days". "Its goal is both simple and expansive: to help us all avoid catastrophic planetary warming and to build resilience around the world to the impacts from climate change we already see".
AFPHopes are high that Biden's government will make up for lost time after US climate envoy John Kerry promised in January his country would "make good" on its climate finance promise.
"We hope they will translate into a very meaningful reduction of emissions and they will be an example for other countries to follow", Guterres said.
Joe Thwaites, a sustainable finance associate at the Washington-based World Resources Institute, said commitments to specific climate funds could be announced before or in the plan, but it should also give a broader view of how the United States intends to approach climate finance over Biden's term.
"The climate crisis is deepening and this is the year we need all major polluters to step up and deliver stronger plans to deliver a safe, clean and prosperous future for everyone", said Laurence Tubiana, France's climate change ambassador and special representative for COP21. "It is vital in our discussions of national security, migration, worldwide health efforts, and in our economic diplomacy and trade talks".
Those measures will form the backbone of their next emissions reduction goal to be announced before a global climate leaders summit Mr Biden will host on April 22.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, has criticized Biden, a Democrat, for rejoining Paris, tweeting: "Returning to the Paris climate agreement will raise Americans' energy costs and won't solve climate change".
Participants are committed to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and, if possible, below 1.5 degrees. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since that time.
