Climate Day at the White House
On the 27th January 2021 the newly inaugurated President of the United States, Joe Biden, set out to show how his administration intends to tackle climate change:
“Let me get to it. Today is “Climate Day” at the White House …— which means that today is “Jobs Day” at the White House. We’re talking about American innovation, American products, American labor. And we’re talking about the health of our families and cleaner water, cleaner air, and cleaner communities. We’re talking about national security and America leading the world in a clean energy future.”
With a raft of Executive Orders* and Memos, President Biden signalled a change from the previous administration, in terms of its attitude to climate change, that could not be more stark. President Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement in 2017, and while many states and cities tried to live up to the aims of Paris, the White House did not see climate change as a national priority. President Trump claimed “I don’t think science knows” about the link between climate change and increased risk of forest fires (the Union of Concerned Scientist disagrees). The contrasting approach of the two Presidents exemplifies the contrasting approaches of their administrations in response to climate change.
*What is an Executive Order? The American Bar Association explains all here.
As a candidate Joe Biden campaigned on reversing those policies by moving the electricity grid to 100% clean energy by 2035 and getting to Net-Zero emissions by 2050, as well as rolling back cuts to environmental regulations made under the previous administration. After being sworn in ,the new President made good on one of those campaign promises by re-joining the Paris Agreement, a move widely welcomed by world leaders and climate change activists alike. A week later, after signing over 30 other Executive Orders, President Biden took aim at the fight against climate change.
In this blog we look at all the documents signed by the new President, what institutions he has set up, who he is appointing to key roles, and what this means for global efforts to fight climate change.
What has the President signed so far?
Notably only the third Executive Order signed on the President’s first day in office, this Memo states that the US will re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, which will take 30 days to come into effect. It is worth noting that joining or withdrawing from the Paris Agreement has never required a law to be passed, and it can simply be done via a statement from the President and an official letter to the UNFCCC.
Executive Order on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
This order re-established the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) co-chaired by the President’s Science Advisor, set to be geneticist Eric Lander.
There is certainly a theme of ‘listening to the scientists’ in President Biden’s initial announcements and orders, and this Memo follows that theme by directing agencies to make “evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data” and directing the Director of the Office of Science and Technology to ensure scientific integrity across the federal government.
Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad
This is an extraordinarily wide-ranging Executive Order, with the overarching aim of gearing up all corners of the federal government to contribute to the work of fighting the climate crisis. We pick out some of the key points here:
The Order indicates that climate change is a national security threat, which reflects policy positions taken by the Defense Department as far back as 2010.
The Order establishes a National Climate Task Force and the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, led by former Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy. You can hear a fascinating interview of how she intends to approach her new job on a recent Outrage and Optimism podcast with Christiana Figueres.
The Order announces that the US will host a Leader’s Climate Summit on Earth Day, 22nd April 2021, a move welcomed by Alok Sharma, president of COP26.
The Order also begins the process of developing a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement as well as a Climate Finance Plan, and commits to the “goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and oceans by 2030”.
The Order also calls for a doubling of offshore wind by 2030, a slightly ambiguous aim but potentially a further boost to the nascent renewable industry.
The Order attempts the use the federal government’s spending power to spur “Green Job” creation by ordering federal agencies to procure clean power, and “Buy American”. It also forms an Interagency Working Group with the aim of helping people with jobs in the fossil fuel industry find cleaner alternatives.
Several agencies have also been set up with the aim of promoting environmental justice, including a Justice40 Initiative, a Climate and Environmental Justice Screen Tool, a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The new bodies are tasked with advising on ways to update an Executive Order from 1994 – something particularly welcomed by COP26andbeyond’s own William Wilson, who first wrote about the importance of that particular Executive Order, and interviewed one of its main authors, Professor Gerald Torres, for his 1999 book, Making Environmental Laws Work – Law and Policy in the UK and USA.
Finally, the Executive Order instructs agencies to end subsidies of fossil fuels, a long-awaited move that will be welcomed by many climate activists.
This further Executive Order completes a U-turn in policy direction between President Biden’s administration and that of his predecessor, summarised by the phrase:
“It is… the policy of my Administration to listen to the science”.
It orders agencies to review all actions and regulations undertaken under the Trump Administration, to see if they are following the best science in terms of climate action and public health, in areas such as methane emissions and fuel economy standards, and gives them 30 days to bring a list of any offending decisions to the Office of Management and Budget for review by the Climate Change Advisor.
The order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to review the previous Administration’s decision to change the boundaries of various national monuments and it requires the Secretary to “place a temporary moratorium on all activities of the Federal Government relating to …Oil and Gas Leasing …in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge”.
The order revokes a long list of environmental and energy executive orders signed under the previous Administration and establishes an Interagency Working Group on the Social Costs of Greenhouse Gases.
Perhaps the most notable inclusion in the order is a revocation of the 2019 permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline was planned to take oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska, via Montana and South Dakota and has a long and controversial history. If the US is to set up an ambitious NDC and begin to come into line with the aims of the Paris Agreement the future of projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline will have to be questioned but balancing the potential job losses of decisions like this against the benefits to the environment is a difficult political challenge.
President Biden campaigned on an argument that promoting green energy and tackling climate change brought with it the promise of creating green jobs, and focusing on the job creation opportunities of cleaner forms of energy has the potential to be a winning argument. Still, this first test shows that navigating the immediate impact to workers and communities dependent upon fossil fuels will be a tricky task for the new administration.
What does this mean for global efforts against climate change?
In his first few days in office, President Biden has clearly set out his aim to have a whole federal government approach to tackling climate change. He has made some key appointments and set up a number of agencies that will be tasked with guiding the US towards meeting the Paris Agreement goals. The priority given to climate change, the different approach to science, the decisions on key aspects of energy and infrastructure, and the whole approach to international engagement on this issue by the United States have undergone a fundamental shift with the change of administration.
But President Biden’s climate policies face some formidable obstacles. He cannot achieve all of his aims through executive actions and he has a long way to go to get lasting legislation through congress. His climate policies will come under intense scrutiny from both political opponents as well as climate activists. While the new President addresses these major challenges at home, the new policies and priorities of his administration have been warmly welcomed by other key participants in COP26.
The US is the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter of CO2, it also continues to have formidable diplomatic power and a crucial voice in international agreements. By setting ambitious emission reduction targets, drafting an NDC, rebuilding its climate reputation and alliances under President Biden, the US can make a real impact on global emissions and become an example of global leadership on climate, as well as help to build momentum in the build-up to COP26 and beyond.