Biden's Earth Day Summit Is a Crucial Opportunity for Climate Action

Biden's Earth Day Summit Is a Crucial Opportunity for Climate Action

3 years ago
Anonymous $4BDEsVAtYS

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bidens-earth-day-summit-is-a-crucial-opportunity-for-climate-action/

Science has a stark message for us all. In this decade, we could lose the fight for the Paris Agreement climate goals, with profound consequences for life on Earth, now and in the future. On our current emissions trajectory—with global heat-trapping emissions continuing to rise except for a brief dip due to last year’s economic crisis—we’re at grave risk of doing so. Global average temperatures keep increasing too, with 2020 ending the hottest decade on record. It’s time we own the gravity of the science, recognize that this is a fight for our collective future, and make the only moral choice: break with the fossil-fueled past and go all-in for a clean energy future.

After promising to be guided by climate science and quickly rejoining the Paris Agreement, President Biden must now lead the United States to go big on climate action. He just announced a major domestic infrastructure plan, which includes significant clean energy and climate resilience investments. He will soon host an Earth Day Summit, where key world leaders will be pressed to make new, enhanced commitments—so-called nationally determined contributions (NDCs)—to reduce their global warming emissions. The U.S. NDC—slated to be announced by the summit—must be ambitious.