Did Joe Biden keep his climate promises?

Addressing climate change was a major focus of Joe Biden's 2020 election campaign, and according to various news outlets, he has largely fulfilled his promise. Now, let's examine the actions taken by Biden since assuming office.

The climate crisis was an issue that Biden campaigned on with the promise that he had a plan to actually do something constructive. This was articulated in a July 2020 speech where he outlined what he would accomplish if elected. 

Biden said that the country would see jobs created, investments made, and irreversible steps taken “to mitigate and adapt to the climate change and put our nation on the road to net zero emissions no later than 2050,” noted Politico. 

The commitments made by Biden while on the campaign trail were not empty promises either, upon taking office Biden immediately went to work correcting many of the issues of the previous administration and setting his own goals. 

The United States rejoined the Paris Agreement on Climate Change on Biden’s first day in office and rolled back many of President Trump’s policies in order to jumpstart  “swift, initial action to tackle the climate crisis,” according to the White House. 

In April 2020, Biden made one of his biggest commitments to combating climate change when he announced a national goal that aimed to achieve a 50-to-52 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas pollution before 2030. 

Biden’s reduction is a target his administration will largely achieve thanks to the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, an economic stimulus package that the World Resource Institute noted contained the largest piece of climate legislation in American history. 

“The Inflation Reduction Act establishes a comprehensive set of clean energy incentives, mostly through decade-long tax credits for everything from electric vehicles to direct air capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide,’ the institute explained. 

“Together with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this legislation will slash the country's planet-warming carbon emissions by up to 40 percent by the end of this decade. It puts the country on the path toward a net-zero economy by 2050,” wrote Michelle Deatrick. 

Deatrick is the founder and chair of the DNC Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis, and she explained in an opinion piece for Newsweek that Biden was delivering on the climate promises he made to the American people. 

“It is a simple and indisputable fact that President Joe Biden has done more than any other president in history to increase safe renewable energy, address the climate crisis, and protect the environment,” Deatrick wrote.

Biden has also tackled super pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons and methane and made significant progress toward requiring all passenger vehicles sold after 2035 to produce zero emissions according to the World Resource Institute. 

The Biden administration has made significant progress in scaling up the removal of carbon dioxide and some progress in its goals to clean up electricity stands 55% by 2025, 75% by 2030, and 100% by 2035. 

The Center for American Progress reported that battery manufacturing has skyrocketed under Biden’s tenure as president—nearly tripling—while Biden’s policies have created upwards of 271,000 new clean energy jobs. 

Biden has also signed an executive order committing to environmental justice for all and has worked to protect the country’s public lands and waters through his administration's ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative. 

There are several things that haven’t been mentioned yet, like Biden’s Day 1 revoking of the Keystone XL pipeline permit or his restoration of the U.S.-China climate diplomacy, but it should be noted Biden is doing more to address the climate crisis than most. 

“Has Biden done everything the environmental community has wanted? No. Is there more he can and should do to address the existential threat from the climate crisis? Absolutely yes,” wrote Michelle Deatrick.

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