WASHINGTON: President Biden on Wednesday recommitted the US to the Paris climate pact, the international accord designed to avert catastrophic global warming, and ordered federal agencies to start reviewing and reinstating dozens of environmental regulations that had been weakened or rolled back by ex-President Trump.
The moves represent a first step in healing one of the deepest rifts between the US and the rest of the world after Trump rejected the Paris pact and seemed to relish his administration’s push to weaken or undo every major domestic climate policy.
Biden has elevated tackling the climate crisis among his highest priorities, vowing that ending the pandemic, restoring the economy, addressing racial injustice and curbing global warming will be the four driving causes of his administration. “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,” he said in his inaugural address. He said that on climate and a range of issues “we will engage with the world once again.”