President Biden Rejoins Paris Climate Agreement; Here's Why That Matters

 Jan Wesner Childs

Published: January 20, 2021

Joe Biden is seen after being sworn in as the 46th U.S. President by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Jan. 20, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

The U.S. is rejoining the Paris climate agreement, a signal of newly elected President Joe Biden's commitment to international efforts to curb global warming.

Biden signed an executive order just hours after taking office Wednesday that reverses a decision by his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the climate accord.

The move was one of Biden's campaign promises.

“A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” Biden said in his inaugural speech. “A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear now.”

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Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said renewed U.S. involvement in the agreement would strengthen international resolve.

“Not a single country in this world, however powerful, however resourceful one may be, can do it alone,” former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. “We have to put all our hands on the deck. That is the lesson, very difficult lesson, which we have learned during last year."

French President Emmanuel Macron directly addressed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in a Twitter post Wednesday.

"We are together. We will be stronger to face the challenges of our time. Stronger to build our future. Stronger to protect our planet," Macron tweeted. "Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!"

More than 190 other nations are signatories to the document, which aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The goal of the agreement, which was finalized in 2015, is to limit global temperature rise to less than 3.6 degrees by the end of the century, the point at which scientists predict the consequences of climate change would ramp up, including catastrophic sea level rise and more extreme storms, drought and wildfires.

Trump announced in June 2017, a few months after his inauguration, that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement but it didn't become official until this past November.

Trump argued that the agreement, which calls for a focus on renewable energy and cleaner economies, was unfair to the U.S. and would cost jobs.

Trump's decision meant one of the largest contributors in the world of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide was no longer part of the agreement. The United States emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country besides China. Those emissions come from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Greenhouse gases trap heat and are considered by scientists worldwide to be responsible for global warming.

The last decade was the warmest ever recorded on Earth, according to a report from the American Meteorological Society, and 2020 was among the warmest single years.

Global warming has far-reaching consequences, from costing lives to affecting wildlife, agriculture, water supplies, food supplies and global economies.

Higher temperatures, for example, help worsen air pollution, which leads to respiratory conditions and increasing numbers of deaths during heat waves, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children, the elderly, the poor, and people with poor health are the most vulnerable.

Experts say the United States' re-entry into the Paris agreement could put the nation on track to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 40% to 50% by 2030, the AP reported.

The move will become effective 30 days after Biden notifies the United Nations.

“The United States is such an important actor internationally. So this day today has been creating a lot of expectation everywhere,” Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, told the Washington Post. “Very few generations have the opportunity to really influence a historical change in the way that humanity evolves. This is one of those moments. So it means a lot of have the U.S. back.”

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.