Pictured above: 46th U.S President Joe Biden. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
By Anoushka Kushawa ’24
Staff Writer
President Joe Biden took action this week to fulfill one of his campaign promises when he signed multiple executive orders on Jan. 27. His executive orders focused on three main themes: job creation, environmental justice, and taking a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis. In his remarks prior to the signing, Biden stated that climate change should be seen as “an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security.”
The vision laid out by the executive orders signed on Wednesday has significant implications for the Biden-Harris administration’s direction on trade, foreign relations and defense strategy. Executive actions ranged from pausing new federal oil leases effective immediately to using the government’s purchasing powers to electrify all government vehicles. These executive orders promise to be beneficial to the cause of environmental justice and to the economy.
The legislation’s emphasis on the economy, which the pandemic has severely weakened, served as a plug for the administration’s “Build Back Better” jobs and economic recovery plan. It was also an attempt to counteract the long-standing Republican criticism that Biden’s climate policies will lead to further job loss and damage to the economy.
Nonetheless, both prominent Republicans and Democrats were unconvinced by the administration’s attempts to make the words “climate justice” and “job increase” synonymous.
Legislation with such a broad scope will be tough to put in place; indeed, many of the actions proposed in the new executive orders may take up to two years to be realized and are vulnerable to removal from another administration without the support of Congress. However, despite the challenges ahead, the Biden administration has unlikely support from corporations such as General Motors, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo — all of whom have pledged to work with the administration toward a car market dominated by electric vehicles.
The executive orders face skepticism not only from Congress but from leading economists. David Popp, an economist at Syracuse University, finds it “hard to believe” that Wednesday’s executive actions — such as auto emissions regulations and government procurement of electric vehicles — will lead to, as Biden claims, 1 million new auto manufacturing jobs. Popp, along with other economists, is cautiously optimistic about a job increase in the environmental sector, citing several economic studies concluding that the implementation of policies combating climate change has led to a decrease of jobs in polluting sectors, but is in conjunction with an increase in jobs in sustainability, clean energy and environmental justice sectors. Some economists also hesitantly praised the administration’s plans to actively find employment for fossil fuel workers displaced due to climate change policy.
Despite the rocky road ahead, environmentalists, such as Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, were jubilant to hear that the new administration is taking swift action against climate change, especially after years of former President Donald Trump’s denial of the climate crisis and dismantling climate policy. “The conditions are at last in place for a real solution,” Whitehouse said.
The Biden administration also formally announced that it would hold a climate summit on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, said that the U.S. hopes to announce a more specific set of targets for lowering its carbon dioxide emissions under the Paris Agreement by that date. Biden rejoined the treaty on his first day in office, reversing Trump’s withdrawal in 2017.
The U.S. has struggled to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement, having previously promised to slash emissions up to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Energy analysts in the U.S. predict that the Biden administration can realistically pledge to cut emissions between 40 and 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. European countries and environmental activists have urged the government to aspire to more ambitious goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent.
With these lofty goals ahead and numerous challenges present, the Biden administration appears to have clarified its stance on the climate crisis. What the future holds for climate policy in the U.S. and the world remains to be seen.