The US rejoins the Paris Agreement

 On his first day in office, the incoming US President Joe Biden signed an executive order for the country to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. In the US, the Republican Party does not believe in climate science, while the Democratic Party does. Thus the climate policy depends on which party hold power in the White House and Congress. 

In 2001, President George W. Bush, had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol. Under President Barack Obama, however, the US played an active role in climate negotiations. By 2015, the negotiations progressed with the Obama administration engaging in diplomacy, resulting in the Paris Agreement premised on voluntary targets for national emissions cuts. President Obama was present in Paris along with world leaders.

Under the Paris Agreement, the US had made a national pledge to achieve an economy-wide reduction of its GHG emissions by 26%-28% below the 2005 level by 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce emissions. However, soon after he became the President in 2017,  Donald Trump ordered the US  withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The US was no longer bound by its pledge to cut emissions. The US also stopped its contribution to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, to which it had pledged $3 billion, after transferring an estimated $1 billion. 

On the contrary, the Trump regime took many anti-environmental measures such as:

• relaxing controls on emissions from fossil fuel-based industries, 
• diluting standards on air quality and vehicular emissions, hydrofluorocarbon leaking and venting from air-conditioning systems, 
• loosening the way the government calculated the social cost of carbon, 
• restraining individual States such as California from setting higher standards, 
• revoking protection for natural habitats including the Arctic (as demanded by the oil and gas industry) and for individual wildlife species. 

In all, more than 100 environmental rules were relaxed by the administration, with some rule reversals remaining in process when the presidential election took place, and others taken to court. 

Another step was to weaken the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the law. The scientist leading the production of the National Climate Assessment, Michael Kuperberg, was replaced just after it became clear that Mr. Trump was losing the election. 

The Clean Power Plan, a major provision from the Obama-era to cut power sector emissions by 32% over 2005 levels by 2030, was initially replaced with the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, with a reduction effect of only 0.7%, according to an estimate by Harvard Law School. In the final days of the Trump presidency, however, the ACE rule was struck down by a court, giving Mr. Biden the freedom to reformulate a strong rule. 

The US accounts for 15% of global GHG emissions, but it is the biggest legacy contributor of atmosphere-warming gases. Transport (28%) and power (27%) are the two biggest national sectors contributing to GHG emissions, followed by industry (22%) and agriculture (10%), according to data published by the EPA in 2020. Commercial and residential emissions together make up only 13%. Significantly, 10% of U.S. emissions are methane, which has a greater warming effect than CO2, and 81% is carbon dioxide. The rest is made up of nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases. 

Mr. Biden, who has formed a high-powered team including special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, to lead clean development, has placed climate change as one of his key priorities. He has promised an “enforcement mechanism to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050”, including a target no later than the end of his term in 2025, aided by a planned federal investment that will total $1.7 trillion over ten years, besides private investments. 

The plan revolves around the creation of 10 million well-paying clean energy jobs with a focus on solar and wind power, close linkages between university research and the private sector modelled on the post-World War II economy, active support for carbon capture, utilization and storage, and a renaissance in green transport that includes the “second great railroad revolution” in a country that starved the railways to promote cars and road freight. 

In his Plan for Climate Change and Environmental Justice released before the election, Mr. Biden said that America would strongly support multilateralism again, but also called for accountability from other countries, including the top emitter, China, on GHG emissions. Nations that default could face carbon adjustment fees or quotas. This year’s UN climate conference in Glasgow will see the new administration engaging UNFCCC member-nations to raise global ambitions.

America’s return to the Paris Agreement will take effect on February 19, 2021, which would be 107 days after its withdrawal under the Donald Trump administration became formal on November 4, 2020. 

(This post is based on an article in The Hindu dated 24^th January 2021.)