Yes, we are back into the Paris Accords and yes we were welcomed back. But what will this mean in the future? What political maneuverings will need to be done? What will be the reaction by politicians and consumers when things change. What just happened in Texas and is still occurring will be part of the discussion.
World leaders welcomed the United States’ official return to the Paris climate accord Friday, but politically trickier steps lie just ahead for President Joe Biden, including setting a tough national target in coming months for cutting damaging fossil fuel emissions. And even as Biden noted the country’s first day back in the climate pact, the globe’s dangerous warming was just one of a long list of urgent problems he raised in a video speech to European leaders on Friday, a month into his administration. Before bringing up climate issues, he touched on the global pandemic, sputtering national economies and tense relations with China, among other matters that threaten to impede and delay tackling the nation’s status as the world’s top carbon polluter after China.
Associated Press
The environment has been front and center in this administration as all cabinet positions have been told to include Climate Change in all they do. Texas has shown why a unified power grid is necessary, going it alone does not work. Increased storms with increased intensity are striking the United States.
Despite all the other challenges, Biden said, speaking to the Munich security conference, “we can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to address climate change. This is a global existential crisis, and all of us will suffer if we fail.”
For four years the past administration di all they could to ignore climate change and do actions directly contrary to good climate practices.
One fear was that other nations would follow America in abandoning the climate fight, but none did, Figueres said. She said the real issue was four years of climate inaction by the Trump administration. American cities, states and businesses still worked to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide but without the participation of the federal government. “We’ve lost too much time,” Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief.
All ready there is opposition and this opposition will grow. There is just as much fervor on those supporting the administrations policies. It will be a battle and for the sake of humanity only one side is on the right side.
