What the Election of Biden Already Means for the Environmental Agenda

Last year we welcomed Joe Biden as the new president of America and discussed what it could possibly mean for the future of the global uptake of renewable energy. We were therefore thrilled to see Joe Biden moved to reinstate the US to the Paris climate agreement just hours after being sworn in as president, as his administration rolls out a cavalcade of executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis.

Biden is also set to block the Keystone XL pipeline, a bitterly contested project that would bring huge quantities of oil from Canada to the US to be refined, and halt oil and gas drilling at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, two vast national monuments in Utah, and the Arctic national wildlife refuge wilderness. The Trump administration’s decision to shrink the protected areas of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will also be reviewed.

The actions taken by Biden after being in the presidential office for mere hours speaks volumes of his intentions to tackle the climate crisis with the swift and strong force it sorely needs. President Trump set climate change at the very back of his priorities and as a result set America back also. However, Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, said Biden will in all reverse “more than 100” climate-related policies enacted by Trump.

Scientists and climate campaigners have welcomed the urgency voiced by Biden given the ever-worsening impacts of the climate crisis across the world. “Even if we can’t get new climate legislation, our executive branch already has many tools to act,” said Leah Stokes, an expert in environmental policy at the University of California. “The best time to cut emissions was decades ago; the second-best time is today.”

You can read our original article which discusses Biden’s environmental policies here.