BIDEN’S PLAN ON CLIMATE CHANGE WILL LIKELY FACE CHALLENGES IN THE EVENLY DIVIDED SENATE
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egardless of the controversy surrounding its status, climate change remains one of the most pressing emergencies the globe faces today. With the planet growing warmer and sea levels rising, scientists have already espoused that the rate at which the change is taking place might lead to irreversible harm. Thus, President Joe Biden has stated in strong terms: “It’s about coming to the moment to deal with this maximum threat that we — that’s now facing us — climate change — with a greater sense of urgency”. He went on to say that the United States had already waited too long to deal with the crisis. “We see it with our own eyes, we feel it, we know it in our bones, and it’s time to act.”, he said in January. Climate action has been one of the foremost policy plans of the Biden-led administration and had been a key campaign promise. Indeed, the 46th President had already passed several executive orders in January, few weeks after he was sworn into office. Through them, he reversed some environmental policies of the Trump administration, which had curtailed the reforms President Obama had made to beat climate change. Among 8
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these was reinstituting the country’s status as a party to the Paris Climate Accord, from which former President Trump had withdrawn. The core of Biden’s climate plan,
as stated during his campaign, is a sweeping renewable energy transition from fossil fuels, which would also mean economic prosperity and job creation. Thus, his executive orders have aimed to end new
THE POWER IS NOW MAGAZINE | MAY 2021
