The Ups and Downs of Climate Change Policy: Where Do We Go From Here?
The world breathed a sigh of relief when President-Elect Biden’s victory was announced, in particular, climate change activists, whose warnings on the dangerous state of global warming have been all but ignored by the Trump administration these past four years. Scientists have continuously cautioned that the world needs to altogether eliminate greenhouse emissions by 2050 to avoid the full effects of climate change (NRDC). Yet, the Republican agenda–Trump’s agenda in particular–did little to address the concerns of climate change and has even exacerbated the current situation. While President Obama did advance climate action through the Clean Power Plan and Paris Agreement, President Trump has aggressively supported opportunities for the fossil fuel industry and has rescinded regulations that favored cleaner sources of energy. The next four years are crucial in terms of curbing carbon emissions for the next decade and look promising with the end of the Trump era in sight.
President Trump’s most significant move against climate change action has been withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, making the United States the only country to-date to back out. In 2016, President Obama committed the United States to the International Paris Climate Change Agreement, thus resulting in tighter standards for the automotive fuel economy and transportation emissions. While Trump announced his intention to do so in late 2017, the United States officially left the Paris Climate Agreement on November 4, 2020, a day after the election (New York Times). However, many states have introduced their own commitments under Obama’s Clean Power Plan, such as decreased carbon emission levels from the previous year (Brookings).
Presumably, the United States will be able to somewhat backtrack the damage done by President Trump in the next four years under the Biden administration. Biden has promised to immediately rejoin the Paris climate deal once in office and has introduced an ambitious clean energy plan that includes an investment of 2 trillion USD into clean energy, clean transportation, nature conversation, and environmental justice efforts (NPR).
On the other hand, Trump will most likely continue to implement his largely anti-environmental policies. The president has repeatedly denied the existence of climate change and has worked to remove any such mention of climate change on governmental websites. He has made it his priority to undermine past democractic environmental regulations as well as boosting the oil and gas industries.
The outcome of this election hopefully will reverse the effect the Trump administration has had on the international reaction to climate change. By withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, President Trump created pretext for other countries to fall short on their promises as well, initiating a fatal domino effect. Since 2017, soon after Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the plan, Russia, Australia, and Saudi Arabia have eased off on their efforts to reach their carbon emissions goals, and China, Japan, and India are continuing to heavily promote their coal industries. In fact, some analysts believe that this was Trump’s exact intention. “I think President Trump stepped back on climate change hoping that the world would join him,” said Jake Schimidt, a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (The Guardian).
While Biden’s success in implementing his climate change plan will depend on the cooperation of the Congress and Senate, his victory is a strong step in the right direction. As the President of the Environmental Defense Fund Action Joe Bonfiglio said, “Voters just gave our country and our planet a fighting chance to solve the climate crisis.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/27/us-paris-climate-accord-exit-what-it-means
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/16/920484187/trumps-and-biden-s-plans-for-the-environment
https://www.brookings.edu/2019/03/22/where-does-u-s-climate-policy-stand-in-2019/
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/paris-climate-agreement-everything-you-need-know
