President Joe Biden has made some big promises to the American people over his campaign and even more as he crosses his first 100 days in office. One of those significant promises is making America greener. President Biden pledged to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% by 2030. This pledge is the latest push by the Biden administration to combat climate change. The ambitious target nearly doubles the 2015 goal of 26% to 28%. Biden is looking to see if he can put his footprint in the fight against pollution and hoping this plan progress America in climate control.
Biden’s promise
The purpose of this plan is to get America back to leading the world on climate change. Biden is passionate about cutting greenhouse gas emissions. During a two-day summit, he explained how cutting greenhouse gas would set America on a path of a net-zero emission economy by 2050. The new pledge offers a glimpse of changes Biden wants to set in motion, such as decarbonizing America’s energy sector and phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles. In addition to creating a greener country, the administration claimed the massive investment in climate change would generate “good-paying” jobs nationwide, which would boost the economy.
Where does this come from?
Several scientists have claimed that the 50% goal is what is needed to limit global warming. Once the world reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius (around 3 degrees Fahrenheit), it will lead to catastrophic levels that will have deadly effects. The Paris Accords is a world effort to stop the Earth from reaching such levels. In attempts to regain respect globally, Biden has called on other world leaders to help fight climate change. By stating the U.S. will take leadership to solve the emission problem, Biden hopes other world leaders will do their part in climate control. Also, Biden is vigorously trying to make the U.S. look significantly better than it has been on the global stage in the last four to five years.
Will it actually happen?
It is always interesting to see administrations make promises that will take decades to see actual effective change. For example, Biden’s promise in slashing greenhouse gas emissions consists of a decade prolonged decrease. Although nothing happens overnight, this plan might be overzealous. Administrations never consider their successors and their possible objections to the progress and their strategies. The U.S. is nowhere near the Obama Administration’s goal of 28%. America is not near the goal primarily due to the next administration undoing much of what President Obama did to combat the climate crises, such as removing the U.S. from the Paris Accord Agreement. Now that President Biden is in office, he is almost starting from the beginning in the fight for climate change.
It is excellent for administrations to talk about the long-term plan, which is a big guess within itself, but it does not give a good strategy for now. One election, state or national, can overturn a president’s plan and promise. More importantly, there is no actual detailed plan in place on how to achieve such a goal. When asked about details of this objective, White House officials have failed to give any but instead exclaimed they are going to do it in a “deliberate” way. All this sounds like a swell plan, but what would go a long way with the American people is having detailed plans to solve the problem than a grandiose plan that may not happen.
