President Joe Biden, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris, right, listen as Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington this month. …
The United States on Friday formally rejoined the Paris climate agreement, the international accord designed to avert catastrophic global warming.
President Biden has said tackling the climate crisis is among his highest priorities and he signed an executive order recommitting the United States to the accord only hours after he was sworn into office last month.
“We can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to address climate change,” Mr. Biden said on Friday. “This is a global, existential crisis. And we’ll all suffer the consequences if we fail.”
It was a sharp repudiation of the Trump administration, which had pulled the country out of the pact and seemed eager to undercut regulations aimed at protecting the environment.
said in a statement on Friday. “We know because we helped design it and make it a reality.”
With some 189 countries joining the pact in 2016, it had broad international support and Mr. Biden’s move to rejoin the effort was welcomed by foreign leaders.
“Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!” Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said in a Twitter message at the time.
The galvanizing idea of the Paris climate accord is that only global solidarity and collective action can prevent the ravages of climate change: hotter temperatures, rising sea levels, more powerful storms, or droughts leading to food shortages.
President Biden has announced a plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to increase the use of clean energies in transportation, electricity and
