Navyasri Singamaneni –
As climate change continues to plague the Earth and has become an increasingly harmful problem in the past decades and the decades to come, we are forced to turn to the leaders of our country. The ones with undoubtedly the most power. So what are they doing with that power? In this article, I plan to explore how the US president, Joe Biden, and his administration have contributed to helping the problem of climate change in our nation and what they plan to do in the future.
The first thing that Biden has done to help face our current environmental problems is rejoining the Paris Agreement that the US had previously left which was created to help poorer countries deal with the effects of climate change. Biden has also laid out plans and set timelines for when he believes his goals will have been reached. He has stated that by 2030, he believes that, with the help of the administration, the net emission level of US companies will reduce by 50 percent, and by 2050 there will be net-zero emissions. To accomplish these goals, there have been several steps Biden has taken. During his first 100 days in office, Biden froze the leasing of oil on lands until a further eco-friendly solution where public lands could be managed in an
eco-friendly manner was proposed. He also had blocked the establishment of the Keystone XL Oil Pipeline that was proposed under Trump’s presidency to help combat excess oil issues. He also claimed that helping with climate change problems could also help the economy create a win-win situation. He claimed how an increase in jobs and economic opportunities could spur more innovation and more effective building of eco-friendly infrastructure while also helping the economy. Biden details how increasing job opportunities and specializing/shifting the focus of jobs to a more eco-friendly focus could help build eco-friendly infrastructure and develop more solutions to help the environment prosper. The president has also put together a Climate Innovation Working Group to help hasten the process of helping with climate change problems and advancing/funding research projects being taken place in order to improve sustainability. He has spent about 100 million dollars to help fund these research projects which are being conducted to help discover energy-saving technologies to help preserve our energy use and other technologies that will help the Biden Administration reach their goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Finally, Biden has also given about 50 billion dollars so far as part of the infrastructure bill he passed to help expand access to clean drinking water, help provide more effective access to energy, help recover from droughts/floods, help underprivileged communities recover from environmental disasters, and any other problems that relate to global warming issues.
Overall, although we have a long way to go to reverse the effects of climate change, our country has made some good progressions in leading a more sustainable future. It is also important that we do our part and live sustainable lives by recycling, not wasting food, saving water, cutting down on our meat consumption, spreading awareness, using less plastic, etc. since our collective efforts can make a big difference as well.
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/15/biden-signs-infrastructure-bill-how-it-fights-climate-change.ht ml
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president- biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-unio n-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/30/joe-biden-first-100-days-in-office-pane l
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/04/biden-100-days-climate-change-humanitys- greatest-threat/
https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-100-million-transformative-clean-energy-solutio ns
