White House press secretary Jen Psaki is due to hold a press conference on Wednesday with special presidential climate envoy John Kerry and White House national climate advisor Gina McCarthy to predict the “aggressive action” that President Biden must take to tackle climate change.
Biden on Wednesday is expected to take a series of executive actions focusing on jobs, “egalitarian” clean energy and “restoring” scientific integrity across the federal government.
BIDEN CLIMATE CHANGE ORDER TO TELL FEDERAL AGENCIES TO ELIMINATE FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES
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, “said the White House.
Biden’s order on Wednesday is set to “empower” American workers and companies to “lead a clean energy revolution” that would reach a carbon pollution-free sector by 2035, while putting the US on an “irreversible path to a zero net economy in 2050. “
BIDEN TO PROHIBIT NEW PERMISSIONS FOR DRILLING IN FEDERAL LANDS, WATER FOR ONE YEAR
The order, according to the White House, clearly establishes climate considerations as an “essential element” of US foreign and national security policy.
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. “
Biden last year announced that Kerry, who served as Secretary of State for former President Obama, would serve as a special presidential envoy for the climate and will serve on the National Security Council – the first time that the NSC will include an officer dedicated to climate changes .