President Biden signed executive orders on climate change on Wednesday by promising to put the issue “at the center” of national security and US domestic and foreign policy.
In a ceremony at the White House, Biden said the orders would “overwhelm” his government’s plan to deal with climate change.
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“Today is the climate day at the White House, which means that today is the day of work at the White House,” said Biden, adding that the government’s focus is on “American products”, “the health of our families, water cleaner and cleaner air. “
“In my opinion, we already expect a lot to deal with this climate crisis and we cannot wait any longer. It’s time to act, ”said Biden, as he outlined his executive actions. “Just as we need a unified national response to COVID-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis, because there is a climate crisis.
Biden added: “When I think about the weather, I think about jobs.”
Biden said that climate change is a case “where conscience and convenience intersect, saying that” dealing with existential threats to the plant and economic growth are the same thing “.
The president said the United States “can put millions of Americans to work on modernizing our food, transportation and energy infrastructure systems”.
But Republicans strongly rejected Biden’s policies, including his order to ban new oil and gas leases on federal land, claiming that they kill jobs.
“America has become the world leader in energy production and a major exporter of oil and natural gas, strengthening our national security and boosting our economy for working families,” said House Republican Steven Scalise, R-La., E 30 House Energy Action Team Republican Party members said in a statement Wednesday. “In less than a week, the Biden government put these jobs and achievements at risk by launching an attack on American energy, as well as the good jobs and low energy costs that accompany them.”
Biden’s order on Wednesday is set to “empower” American workers and companies to “lead a clean energy revolution” that aims to achieve a carbon-free sector by 2035, while putting the US on an “irreversible path.” for a zero net economy of 2050. “
The request will be expanded on its move last week to rejoin the Paris climate deal. Its review of “harmful reversals of standards” that protect air, water and communities is set to direct federal agencies to “eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels under applicable law and identify new opportunities to stimulate innovation, commercialization and deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure. “
As for jobs, the order, according to the White House, is “consistent with the President’s objectives to Build Better Jobs and an economic recovery plan”, saying that clean energy jobs are a “central pillar”. The orders direct federal agencies to purchase carbon-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create well-paying union jobs and “stimulate clean energy industries”.
The order also “requires these purchases to be made in America”, while “strictly” imposes the guidelines on wages and benefits.
“These actions reaffirm that agencies must work to ensure that any jobs created with funds to tackle the climate crisis are good jobs with the option to join a union,” said the White House.
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The order also “catalyzes” job creation in construction, manufacturing, engineering and specialized trade, directing measures to ensure that any investment in federal infrastructure reduces climate pollution and that measures are taken to accelerate transmission and clean energy projects under the federal administration and allowing processes in an environmentally sustainable way.
White House’s Biden on Wednesday also said that “we are not going to ban hydraulic fracturing.”
Fracking is a process that involves injecting water into shale rock at high pressure to extract natural gas and has revolutionized the oil and gas industry by allowing producers to reach large quantities within shale rock that were previously unattainable and had a prohibitive cost to drill.
As a result, oil and gas production in the United States has almost tripled in the past decade. More than 95% of new wells use hydraulic fracturing, accounting for about two-thirds of natural gas production and half of oil production in 2018, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
The order, according to the White House, establishes climate considerations as an “essential element” of US foreign and national security policy.
“This is a governmental approach to putting climate change at the center of domestic policy, national security and foreign policy,” said Biden.
The order states that the US “will exercise its leadership to promote a significant increase in global ambition”, while making it clear that “both significant reductions in short-term global emissions and net global emissions from zero until mid-century – or earlier – are necessary to avoid placing the world on a dangerous and potentially catastrophic climate trajectory. “
The order also commits Biden to host a Climate Leaders Summit on Earth Day, April 22, 2021; the US must reconvene the Big Economies Forum; and to underscore the government’s commitment to raising the climate in US foreign policy.
Meanwhile, the order also directs Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate on the security implications of climate change, the State Department to prepare a Senate transmission package for the Kigali Amendment to the protocol. Montreal, and all agencies to develop strategies to integrate climate considerations into their international work.
The order also formally establishes the White House’s Climate Policy Office, creating a head office in the White House to coordinate and implement Biden’s domestic climate agenda.
With regard to agriculture, the order instructs the secretary of agriculture to “collect contributions from farmers, ranchers and other interested parties” on how to use federal programs to “encourage the adoption of climate-smart farming practices that produce verifiable reductions and carbon sequestrations. And create new sources of income and jobs for rural Americans. “
Biden’s order also instructs the interior secretary to stop concluding new oil and natural gas leases on public land or offshore waters as far as possible, to launch a rigorous review of all existing leases and licensing practices related to the development of fossil fuels in public lands and waters, and to identify measures that can be taken to double the production of renewable energy from offshore wind by 2030.
The White House said the order “formalizes” Biden’s “commitment” to making environmental justice part of the mission of each federal agency, guiding them to develop programs, policies and activities to address the disproportionate impacts of health, environment, economy and climate on disadvantaged communities.
The order creates a “Justice40 Initiative” across the government with the aim of delivering “40 percent of the overall benefits of relevant federal investments to underserved communities”. Meanwhile, Biden is also expected to sign a presidential memo on Wednesday focused on scientific integrity, in an effort to “send a clear message” that his government “will protect scientists from political interference” so that they can “think, research and speak to provide valuable information and insights to the American people for free. “
Biden on Wednesday also signed an executive order to reinstate the Presidency’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.
The board should also advise Biden on the scientific and technical information needed to “inform public policies related to the economy, worker training, education, energy, environment, public health, national and internal security, racial equality and other topics”.