WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris and White House staff convened cabinet secretaries and acting heads of 21 federal agencies Thursday to fulfill President Biden’s pledge to mobilize the entire federal government to fight climate change.
Gina McCarthy, head of the White House’s climate policy office, said Thursday’s meeting focused on job creation and ensured the agencies’ leaders play their role in setting an aggressive new target for reducing the US stake understood in terms of global emissions. The Biden government plans to announce these targets on April 22nd.
“We haven’t gained a lot of credibility about the climate in the last four years,” said Ms. McCarthy, who chaired the meeting on Thursday, in an interview, adding, “It’s time we changed that.”
The National Climate Task Force, which Mr Biden established as part of a series of executive actions during his first week in office, is expected to meet regularly to track progress on a number of administrative goals, including eliminating fossil fuel emissions from the electricity sector by 2035; Conversion of the federal, state and local fleets to emission-free vehicles; Increase in nature conservation with a simultaneous increase in the generation of renewable energies on public areas and bodies of water.
Mr Biden campaigned for a commitment to achieve net zero emissions across the economy by 2050 and to eradicate fossil fuel pollution in the electricity sector by 2035.
Mr Biden has argued that tackling climate change, by focusing on building clean energy infrastructure, will bring economic recovery and create “millions” of new jobs – an objective that economists believe are challenging.
At the meeting on Thursday, the task force set up a new working group to deal with specific challenges, such as: B. the creation of energy storage at a fraction of the current cost and the development of sustainable fuels for aircraft and ships. The administration announced $ 280 million in grants for the combined energy and transportation division for technology development.
The talks took place over Zoom among about 50 people, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as MPs from agencies waiting for the Senate to approve their leaders, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Home Office.
Ali A. Zaidi, the White House deputy national climate adviser, said the goal was to “redefine the way the government can act in the face of major crises,” such as climate change.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, now Biden’s global envoy on climate change, spoke to the task force about the upcoming international negotiations in which the United States, which is part of the Paris Agreement, will participate.
The Obama administration promised to cut US emissions by up to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Former President Donald J. Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, ending all federal efforts to achieve that goal, leaving the country about halfway there. Mr Biden is expected to propose an even more aggressive target that he believes the nation can achieve by 2030.
The government intends to announce the new emissions target at a global leadership climate summit on April 22nd.
“We will examine every opportunity we have to capture the reductions that we can defend,” said Ms. McCarthy.
Comments are closed.