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The National Security Council will open new horizons with the appointment of John Kerry to a dedicated role in fighting climate change, emphasizing that international diplomacy’s focus on climate is a key priority for Joe Biden’s incoming administration.
The appointment of the former Obama-era secretary of state, who helped orchestrate the 2015 Paris climate agreement, as a presidential special climate envoy, signals that the issue will rise to the top of the U.S. political agenda , although the Biden administration could face a tough battle to implement its environmental goals nationwide.
“Kerry’s presence on the National Security Council places the climate at the pinnacle of White House influence,” said Paul Bledsoe, a Progressive Policy Institute advisor and former White House climate officer under President Bill Clinton.
“Biden sees the climate as a global security problem, not a classic environmental problem, and this elevates his priority within the White House superstructure.”
However, the prospect of a Republican-controlled Senate could mean that the Biden administration is unable to pass key climate legislation, including the $ 2 trillion climate budget that was part of its campaign platform.
The president-elect could still use regulatory measures to undo some of the actions of the Donald Trump administration, which has loosened dozens of environmental rules.
It will also be able to use executive orders to terminate new oil and gas leases on federal land and restore California’s right to regulate automotive emissions standards, reversing Trump’s key policies.
As an indication of the broader effects of a major policy shift, automaker GM is already in line with Biden’s agenda this week by abandoning its previous support for Trump’s push back on Californian action.
Jeff Colgan, director of the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University, said Biden would need to provide an internal climate change blueprint to lead the country and look for ways to cut emissions even if legislative efforts fail.
“There is so much that a federal government can do about climate change through the various agencies, not just the State Department, or the Treasury or the Environmental Protection Agency, or the Federal Reserve, in all of them,” he added. “We mustn’t forget how powerful the president can be.”
The Biden administration has not yet announced who will lead the EPA, which under Trump suffered staff cuts and reduced law enforcement.
Some progressives have criticized the president-elect’s stance on fracking, which he does not intend to ban, and his reluctance to support the Green New Deal proposal.
But Kerry’s appointment – long seen as an optimistic centrist who likes to build alliances and work cooperatively – could help the new administration win the favor of both sides of Congress.
Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman who now heads RepublicEN, a climate advocacy group, described it as a “huge relief”, saying Kerry was “devoted to climate action”.
Kerry’s formal involvement in climate change policy dates back to 1992, when he was a member of the US delegation led by Al Gore at the first Earth Summit in Rio, where the framework for the 2015 Paris climate agreement was established. aims to limit global warming to well below 2 ° C.
Biden has promised the US will re-enter the climate pact on his first day in office, after Trump withdrew from the deal.
Kerry’s diplomatic background and seat in the NSC signals that the United States will work to persuade other countries to improve their climate goals, which are currently a long way off the Paris targets.
But it could face a tough battle to restore U.S. credibility after President Trump spent years denigrating the Paris Agreement, particularly if Biden’s climate bill is rejected by Congress.
After returning to Paris in the agreement, the United States, which is the second largest emitter in the world after China, will have to establish a new climate target for 2030, ahead of talks on the UN climate in Glasgow next year .
“The work we started with the Paris Agreement is far from done,” Kerry said She said on Twitter Monday. “I am going back to the government to get America back on track to meet the greatest challenge of this generation and those to come.”
The world is now on course for about 2.7 ° C of warming by the end of the century, according to analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a research group based in Germany.
According to their analysis, about 0.1 ° C of such warming could be avoided if the United States joined the Paris Agreement and set a net zero target for 2050.
China’s recent carbon neutrality target set for 2060 will further reduce 0.2 ° C-0.3 ° C, bringing the Paris target closer to reach.
Mr. Kerry remained active in climate diplomacy even after he left office in 2017 and last year launched a campaign for climate action called World War Zero. “I think we have to treat it like we’re at war. I am not saying this lightly, “he told UN climate talks last year in Madrid.
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