US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a package of measures he called “ambitious” to fight the climate crisis.
“Our plan is ambitious, but we are Americans. We can do it, we have to do it and we will do it,” the Democrat said at a press conference. “We see that [a crise climática] with our own eyes. We feel it. We know this in our bones. And now is the time to act. “
The measures strongly affect the oil and gas industry, prohibiting further exploration on public lands, in addition to determining that wind power production will double by 2030.
Federal agencies, on the other hand, should eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and “identify new opportunities to spur innovation,” Biden said.
The president also ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reinstate the federal government’s only far-reaching policy to reduce carbon emissions. The rule, under the leadership of Barack Obama, was aimed at reducing automobile pollution and was lifted by Donald Trump last year.
The Democrat also called for a campaign to review tax incentives for oil companies – which total billions of dollars for the oil, coal and gas industries – to help fund his $ 2 trillion plan on change. climate. The approval of this plan, however, depends on Congress, where it faces strong opposition.
In the measures announced Wednesday, Biden also set new international policy goals, making it clear that climate change, for the first time, will be at the center of this area, along with national security decisions.
Earlier, Special Climate Envoy John Kerry told the New York Times that the United States will host an international environment forum on April 22, Earth Day. “The convening of this summit is essential for 2021 to be the year that really makes up for lost time of the past four years,” he said.
Kerry said that, until the event, he will announce a new set of specific targets to reduce US carbon emissions, under the Paris Agreement, to which the country has again been a party, in one of Biden’s first decisions in power. .