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Biden announced measures to tackle climate change

US President Joe Biden, unable to pass climate laws through Congress, tried today to implement some of his campaign promises by announcing new measures at a time when many states and European countries are suffocating due to the heat.

Climate change is “a clear and immediate danger” as well as an “existential threat to our nation and the world,” the US president said. “The health of our fellow citizens is at stake” but also “our national security and our economy,” he added, during a visit to a highly polluting old coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts. This factory was closed in 2017 and today it is converted into a wind energy production unit.

“Since Congress is not doing what it should (…) I will use my executive powers,” the 79-year-old president said.

However, Biden avoided, at least for now, declaring a “climate emergency”, as some Democratic lawmakers have been asking him to do. It’s not clear what effect this would have, but it might give him some additional powers.

The president intends to proceed “at his own pace” and “there are some powers he can use” to begin with, his climate adviser Gina McCarthy told CNN.

Among the executive orders prepared by the Biden administration is one that provides additional funds to protect areas facing heatwaves as well as measures to boost wind energy production in the US.

Biden adviser John Kirby said Tuesday that climate change is a “national security” issue that “affects our infrastructure.”

Biden says he is determined to keep his commitments, especially in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He returned to the Paris climate accord, which his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned, and announced last April that the US would cut emissions by 50-52% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

But Biden, as on other issues (abortion, gun ownership), has limited powers, since he does not have a clear majority in the Senate and the Supreme Court is against him. His agenda to tackle climate change was also dealt a severe blow when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he would not support an ambitious bill to shift the US economy to “clean” energy sources, effectively dooming it to failure.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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