{"id":819,"date":"2021-04-27T10:03:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T10:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biden-power-map.test\/?post_type=topic&p=819"},"modified":"2021-08-20T21:35:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T21:35:18","slug":"climate-change","status":"publish","type":"topic","link":"https:\/\/biden-agenda.foreignpolicy.com\/topic\/climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Biden administration is putting climate change at the heart of its decision-making, with President Biden recognizing<\/a> it as an \u201cessential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security [as well as trade].\u201d In the first week of his presidency, Biden recommitted the U.S. to the Paris Agreement<\/a>, reinstated<\/a> more than 100 environmental regulations that had been rolled back or weakened by President Trump, ordered<\/a> the Secretary of the Interior to stop entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands, and cancelled<\/a> construction of the XL Keystone Pipeline, among other actions. Additional actions are forthcoming, with climate-related measures anticipated to be implemented domestically and across the U.S. foreign policy apparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tackle climate change, President Biden\u2019s plan outlines several key long-term domestic benchmarks<\/a>, including a 50 to 52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution in 2030\u2013nearly double the target set by former President Obama\u2013and 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. The targets are consistent with the administration\u2019s overarching goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, a deadline that climate scientists say<\/a> is necessary to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate disruption. To achieve net-zero, the generation of carbon emissions can be offset<\/a> via the removal of carbon from the atmosphere by natural or technical means, such as planting trees and leveraging carbon capture technology. In late March 2021, Biden proposed the American Jobs Plan<\/a>, an expansive $2 trillion infrastructure bill that seeks to build smart infrastructure and boost domestic climate resilience efforts over the next 10 years. Through a combination of tax credits and spending, the proposed bill seeks<\/a> to rebuild 20,000 miles of roads and 10,000 bridges, eliminate lead pipes from the country\u2019s water supplies, shift the U.S. to clean energy sources, and in the short run, create millions of jobs while strengthening economic competitiveness<\/a><\/strong> and promoting racial equality in the economy in the long run. Beyond the infrastructure bill, as a candidate, Biden promised<\/a> that in partnership with universities, the private sector, and local governments, the administration would also develop regional climate resilience plans and low-carbon manufacturing to support local economies. According to Biden\u2019s team, the combination of state, local, federal, and private-sector investment needed to tackle climate is estimated at $5 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration also plans to make an additional $400 billion in federal investment over the next ten years in clean energy research and development to innovate zero-carbon technologies and support the national transition to a green economy. The climate research and innovation arm of the federal government will be run through a new agency called the Advanced Research Project Agency for Climate (ARPA-C). ARPA-C\u2019s mission will be to develop cutting-edge research and technology across a range of issues from nuclear power to carbon capture technologies so that the U.S. can meet its 2050 target. However, experts have raised concerns<\/a> about whether ARPA-C will serve the same purpose as the ARPA-Energy (ARPA-E), which already focuses on \u201ctransformational low-carbon energy technologies\u201d through the Department of Energy (DOE). By 2025, the administration has also promised to establish legally binding emissions reductions requirements that would penalize emitters for exceeding yet-to-be-established thresholds and hold polluters accountable for impacts they have on local communities, particularly communities of color and those that are low-income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pay for the substantial cost of Biden\u2019s ambitious climate agenda, particularly the proposed infrastructure bill, the Biden team proposes to reverse the Trump administration\u2019s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)<\/a>, which slashed the corporate tax income rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. In an effort achieve bipartisan consensus, Biden has altered his initial proposal, which planned to raise the minimum corporate tax rate to 28 percent, and instead has offered to set the rate<\/a> to 15 percent and an income tax increase<\/a> on individuals with annual income above $400,000. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 55 corporations paid no federal taxes in 2020, resulting<\/a> in $8.5 billion in forgone tax revenue. A recent ProPublica report found that some of the wealthiest individuals in the world, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk, paid little<\/a> in federal income taxes at various times over the past decade. Given its multifaceted goals of investing in infrastructure and supporting communities\u2019 transitions from fossil fuels to green energy, among others, the administration has proposed<\/a> to raise capital gains tax from 37 percent to 39.6 percent to compensate for the lost revenue. However, the Biden team must strike a balance between its climate agenda and its goals for economic recovery, and some analysts predict<\/a> that should the administration raise the minimum corporate tax rate to 28 percent, it could reduce the national GDP by 1.62 percent in the long run. It is clear that climate change is playing a central role in the administration\u2019s fiscal policies, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen<\/a><\/strong> calling climate change a tremendous risk to American financial stability and the global economy writ large. During a meeting with the Financial Stability and Oversight Council, Yellen notably requested<\/a> that regulators improve the measurement and management of the economic impacts of global warming and climate-related risks as the Biden administration continues to pursue its climate agenda. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to mandate<\/a> greater disclosures from large investors concerning the climate change risk imbedded within their portfolios. Companies have advocated for the SEC to standardize how firms quantify their climate risk profiles to improve analytical comparisons between their assessments. In December 2020, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell<\/a> <\/strong>joined<\/a> the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System, a group of 90 central banks working together to address climate change. In March 2021, the organization put forward proposals to the banks, such as instituting higher interest rates<\/a> for lenders that rely on carbon-based industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Biden is going beyond previous administrations, including the Obama Administration, to address climate change, committing resources and creating new positions within the federal government to address this critical policy area. Former President Obama acknowledged climate change as an \u201cexistential threat\u201d through his Climate Action Plan (CAP)<\/a>, Executive Order 13653<\/a>, and the Clean Power Plan (CPP)<\/a>. However, advocates criticized<\/a> the administration\u2019s approach, stating that Obama\u2019s re-election goals limited his support for pro-climate policies during his first term. Still, the Obama administration played a crucial role in advancing both domestic climate policy and international collaboration to fight climate change. In contrast, President Trump called<\/a> climate change a hoax, claiming that global warming was a \u201cconcept created by China in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.\u201d In May 2021, the EPA released a report<\/a>, which the Trump administration had blocked, finding that climate change is occurring more rapidly than was previously understood and affecting the U.S. in more dangerous and severe ways. During his administration, Trump took aggressive and widespread action to scale back measures aimed at fighting climate change, including withdrawing<\/a> the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and relaxing<\/a> fuel economy standards in various industries, all contributing to the U.S. backsliding on climate. According to the 2020 UN Emissions Gap report<\/a>, although the U.S. still contributes the most emissions per capita in the world, over the last decade, U.S. emissions have dropped, while those of China, India, and Russia have continued to rise. The Biden administration has attributed<\/a> this success to state and local governments that are driving emissions reduction, suggesting that despite opposition from the former administration, other leaders have stepped up their efforts to reduce emissions. There are conflicting accounts, however, about U.S. successes, as some scientists argue<\/a> that while the U.S. contributed the most to the global drop in emissions (13 percent), this has been largely due to lockdown measures from the pandemic. Subsequent reports by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) find<\/a> that the pandemic did not slow climate warming and that actions by countries are necessary to effectively address the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Biden\u2019s call for a whole-of-government approach to climate change and the creation of new climate-focused positions within his administration, particularly on the National Security Council (NSC), elevates the issue of climate change unseen during previous administrations. Former Secretary of State John Kerry<\/a><\/strong> and former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy<\/a><\/strong> are serving in critical new positions as U.S. Special Envoy for Climate and White House National Climate Advisor, respectively. McCarthy\u2019s role is to ensure that all federal agencies are actively addressing<\/a> climate change, with anticipated EPA action including imposing stricter regulations on emissions and working alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require corporations to disclose financial risk from climate change. Her foreign affairs counterpart, Kerry, will hold a seat on the NSC and will work with countries to bolster their efforts on climate change. Substantive domestic action on climate is critical for Biden and Kerry to convince countries of U.S. climate leadership and commitment to the issue. As such, McCarthy\u2019s and Kerry\u2019s roles and their teams will be intertwined, and they must work in tandem to accomplish the administration\u2019s climate goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Responsibility for Emissions Reduction is Global <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, global emissions totaled 36.44 billion tons. According to the United Nations\u2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), global net human-caused emission of carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) must fall<\/a> by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050 to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions by Region, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n