Will 2021 be the Year to Fight Back on Climate Change?

With Biden’s pledge to rejoin the Paris Agreement in his first day of Presidency, it seems like the U.S will take an important step to recovery.

The four years of President Trump’s administration were marked by a strong disbelief in climate science, which led to the abandonment of important international treaties that represented large advancements in the global effort to tackle climate change.

Last month marked the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the current framework to limit global warming, only a few days after Trump’s three-year battle to abandon the treaty finally succeeded.

“We note with regret that the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has formally come into effect today” read the joint statement by Chile, France, Italy, UK and UN Climate Change when the final withdrawal process was over.

According to the New York Times, under President Barack Obama, the United States promised to reduce its emissions about 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, but progress on that goal stopped under the Trump administration.

This immediately halted the US record as the lead country in the fight against climate change, paving the way for China and Russia to take over.

As projected by the Climate Action Tracker, the Trump Administration’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement and its rollbacks of domestic climate policy will leave US greenhouse gas emissions at least 3% higher in 2030 than with the policies still in place.

“On day one, my administration will rejoin the Paris Agreement and put America back in the business of leading the world on climate change” said President Elect Joe Biden tweeted.

Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan claims to be one that will put the United States on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, which is set to include a $2 trillion accelerated investment over his first term.

This, according to the plan, will set the United States on an irreversible course to meet the ambitious climate progress that science demands, and it comprises infrastructure, auto industry, transit, power sector, agriculture and conservation, buildings, housing, innovation and environmental justice.

“When it comes to the existential threat of climate change, we have no time to lose. This team will be ready on day one to meet this moment with the urgency it demands and build our nation back better than ever” Biden said.

The clock is still ticking and there’s only a few weeks left to rejoin the Paris Agreement as intended, preparations are almost ready for inauguration day this January 20^th, and most certainly, the whole world will be watching.