The United States has rejoined the Paris climate accord, just 107 days after it left as President Joe Biden continues to reverse Donald Trump’s legacy.
The return became official on Friday February 19, almost a month after President Joe Biden told the United Nations that America wants back in.
‘A cry for survival comes from the planet itself,’ Biden said in his inaugural address. ‘A cry that can´t be any more desperate or any more clear now.’
Donald Trump announced its withdrawal from the Paris accord in 2019 but it didn’t become effective until November 4, 2020, making the United States the first nation to formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
According to Mail Online, the Paris accord requires countries to set their own voluntary targets for reducing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
And the only binding requirement is that nations have to accurately report on their efforts.
But Trump told world leaders at a virtual summit in November that the agreement was designed to cripple the U.S. economy, not save the planet.
‘To protect American workers, I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris climate accord, a very unfair act for the United States,’ Trump said in a video statement from the White House to the Group of 20 summits hosted by Saudi Arabia.
Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office reversing the pullout ordered by his predecessor to the climate accord.
Mitchell Bernard, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Biden’s order to rejoin the accord makes the U.S. part of the global solution for climate change rather than part of the problem.
“This is swift and decisive action,” Bernard said in a statement. “It sets the stage for the comprehensive action we need to confront the climate crisis now, while there’s still time to act.”
