The United States rejoins the Paris Agreement!

                                                                                                By The Eco-Mindset News Team

Last night, while most of Australia was sleeping, Joe Biden took the Oath of Office and became the 46th President of the United States. And in a clear signal that climate change is one of his top priorities, he has recommitted the US to the Paris Agreement on his very first day. 

This is a hugely significant moment for global action on climate change. Australia was recently ranked among the worst-performing nations in the G20 (1) when it comes to acting on climate change, hiding behind Trump’s climate-denying administration for the last four years and using the US as cover for our own woeful targets and appalling lack of action. 

But this is all set to change. 

President Biden has an ambitious climate change agenda that states his administration will: 

• Rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one. (Tick!)
• Ensure the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050, as well as achieving net-zero emissions in the electricity sector by 2035.
• Build a stronger, more resilient nation by investing heavily to ensure that buildings, water, transportation, and energy infrastructure can withstand the impacts of climate change.
• Rally the rest of the world to meet the threat of climate change.
• Stand up to big polluters who put profit over people and who knowingly harm our environment.
• Protect workers and communities by creating clean jobs in new industries and ensuring no person is left behind.

I want to draw your attention to one key point in this list - ‘rally the rest of the world to meet the threat of climate change’. In his Climate Change Plan (2), President Biden goes on to say that his administration will ‘lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets’. 

Australia is now a sitting duck - stranded alongside Russia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil in a shrinking pool of international climate wreckers who have not set a net-zero target. And with Biden now at the helm in the US, pressure is building on Australia to step up our game. 

2021 will be a critical year for climate action, beginning today and culminating at COP26 in November, when all international signatories to the Paris Agreement will meet again in Glasgow to discuss progress on their emissions reduction commitments. 

Australia’s refusal to adopt a credible climate policy is not just damaging our international reputation, it’s becoming increasingly economically risky and costing workers who are missing out on new clean job opportunities. 

More than 70% of Australia’s coal and gas exports go to South Korea, Japan and China, which have recently committed to achieving net zero emissions by around mid-century. President Biden has now also promised to set a net zero target. 

Instead of languishing in the polluting industries of the past, Australia can capitalise on our massive natural advantages in solar and wind, and manufacture products like renewable hydrogen and green steel, that will create jobs and set up the industries of the future.