Joe Biden pledges to drastically slash US greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about climate change issues in the State Dining Room of the White House on January 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed several executive orders related to the climate change crisis on Wednesday, including one directing a pause on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images
President Joe Biden announced a new goal to sharply cut down US greenhouse gas emissions this decade. The country’s new mandate is to reduce planet-heating gases by 50 to 52 percent of what the US emitted in 2005. It significantly ramps up a previous commitment under the Paris climate agreement made by former President Barack Obama, who pledged to slash emissions between 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
The urgency for the US to gut its climate pollution has only grown since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. Global carbon dioxide emissions need to drop by half this decade and reach close to zero by the middle of the century in order to hit the goals of the Paris...
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