Joseph R. Biden on Saturday marked the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change by promising the U.S. will rejoin the treaty as soon as he takes office as president.
Mr. Biden reiterated his pledge to rejoin the Paris climate accord in a statement his presidential transition team issued roughly one month and a week until the Democrat is set to take office.
“The United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one of my presidency, and I’ll immediately start working with my counterparts around the world to do all that we possibly can, including by convening the leaders of major economies for a climate summit within my first 100 days in office,” said Mr. Biden.
Without mentioning President Trump by name, Mr. Biden also criticized his soon-to-be predecessor for having pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord during the current Republican administration.
American “leadership was essential to negotiating Paris and indispensable to bringing the Agreement into force,” Mr. Biden said in the statement. “Over the last four years, however, the world has lost that momentum, and nations and people in every part of the world are feeling the devastating impacts of a changing climate. We haven’t come close to the bold action that’s needed, and today, we have no time to waste.”
Nearly every country agreed to the Paris accord before it was officially adopted on Dec. 12, 2015, each one effectively pledging action meant to reduce factors contributing to climate change.
Mr. Trump announced within months of becoming president in 2017 that he planned to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris accord, however, and has said he believes it was “designed to kill the U.S. economy.”
His administration officially quit the pact in November, creating what stands to be a lapse of fewer than three months before the next begins. Inauguration Day is January 20.
Mr. Biden previously announced he has has named his former Senate colleague and secretary of state John Kerry to serve as the nation’s first special presidential envoy for climate.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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