It’s a good sign that what was always pushed aside by the Trump’s administration – has been taken up as one of the priorities by the Biden-led government in the US. However, unfortunately it is too late for the US to present any admirable history of actions to mitigate further deterioration of the global climate. Dire negligence towards the crucial issue by the Donald Trump’s government has put the new Joe Biden’s government under tremendous pressure, in fact, although the US negotiators will be present in the COP 26 (Glasgow) that is scheduled from October 31 to November 12, they have almost nothing impressive to present there except some earnest pledges of action.
As far as the issue of mitigation of climate deterioration is concerned, the USA lost global trust when former President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement and demolished policies that might have yielded promised emission-cuts. The game started even earlier, when in 2001, the George Bush’s administration declared that it had ‘no interest’ in reviving the Kyoto treaty on global warming.
The US produced 6.6 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, the second largest in the world after China. Biden, the 46th and current President of the US assumed office on January 20, 2021. Apart from other important international issues, such as withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, he had to concentrate on fighting COVID-19 pandemic to stabilize the American socio-economic condition. After the publication of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Pannel on Climate Change) report that was developed over the past eight years by scientists – who delved into 14,000 studies that categorically pointed out that the entire world (including the US) is running out of time to avoid disastrous climate impacts, pressure from different quarters started mounting on him.
He is trying his best at this moment to get back the lost faith on his country as far as the prevention-of-climate-change-related actions are concerned. Recently, he has attempted hard to get Congress to pass his multi-trillion-dollar Build Back Better reconciliation bill, which consists of clean energy investments aimed at attaining the US pledge to slash emissions by 50 to 52% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. Let’s wait and watch his stand during COP 26.
Pravita Iyer
Publisher & Director
