Joe Biden: US will lead global effort in climate crisis fight
- US president signs executive orders in the most ambitious US effort to stave off the worst of climate change
- US will host a Leaders’ Climate Summit on April 22, the fifth anniversary of the Paris agreement
The measures included placing a hold on new oil and gas drilling on federal lands and offshore, as the leader of the world’s second biggest carbon emitter began making good on his campaign pledges.
“We’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis,” said Biden. “We can’t wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes, we feel it. We know it in our bones.”
“I’m signing today an executive order to supercharge our administration’s ambitious plan to confront the existential threat of climate change,” he continued, adding: “We must lead the global response.”
Biden has appointed former secretary of state John Kerry as his international climate envoy and said the US will host a Leaders’ Climate Summit on April 22, the fifth anniversary of the signing ceremony of the Paris agreement.