Paris Climate Agreement: US to join climate pact on first day of Joe Biden's presidency

The 46th US President-elect Joe Biden on December 12 reiterated his pledge to rejoin the Paris climate accord of 2015 that the outgoing Donald Trump administration abandoned formally on November 4 after announcing it in 2017. While the world marked the five-year anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, Biden said he would rejoin the pack on the first day of his presidency. 

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the agreement for the deteriorating economy and claimed that the pact meant to take climate action, could cost the United States 2.5 million jobs by 2025. Now that the US can still attend negotiations and present its opinions and is relegated to observer status, Biden said that his administration will increase the ambition of the American domestic climate target and put the country on a sustainable path to achieve net-zero emissions before 2050. 

“The United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one of my presidency, and I'll immediately start working with my counterparts around the world to do all that we possibly can, including by convening the leaders of major economies for a climate summit within my first 100 days in office,” Biden said in a press release.

“We'll elevate the incredible work cities, states, and businesses have been doing to help reduce emissions and build a cleaner future. We'll listen to and engage closely with the activists, including young people, who have continued to sound the alarm and demand change from those in power, he said. And we'll do all of this knowing that we have before us an enormous economic opportunity to create jobs and prosperity at home and export clean American-made products around the world, harnessing our climate ambition in a way that is good for American workers and the US economy,” he added.

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Thunberg on Paris Agreement's 5 years

Meanwhile, the world leaders are touting the progress made as per the Prais climate accord of 2015 and are gearing up to celebrate the same virtually, teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on December 10 called them out on “empty promises”. Saying that real hope comes from the people and not the leaders, the 17-year-old took to Twitter to note the “hypothetical” goals of the Paris Agreement even five years after it was signed. 

As the Paris Agreement which was signed on December 12, 2015, to celebrate its five years, the US, UK and France organised a global climate summit 'Climate Ambition Summit 2020' in collaboration with Chile and Italy. Several leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the virtual summit reportedly hailing the success of the accord that Greta Thunberg has called “net-zero loopholes”. 

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