49
^
Residents of the Oakmont Gardens senior
home in Santa Rosa, Calif., evacuate on a
bus as the Shady Fire approaches on Sept. 28
NOAH BERGER—AP
office—on Nov. 4, President Trump officially left the
2015 emission- reducing pact that nearly 200 coun-
tries have agreed to follow. While rejoining the deal
requires little more than a signature, restoring U.S.
leadership on global climate efforts will take more
work. As Trump denied and deflected on climate
over the past four years, the rest of the world pushed
ahead. The E.U. committed to eliminating its carbon
footprint by 2050, planning to spend €1 trillion to re-
orient its economy with climate change at its center.
China has integrated the issue into industrial plan-
ning, saying it will be carbon-neutral by 2060. “The
world has moved on,” says Helen Mountford, vice
president for climate and economics at the World
Resources Institute. “A lot of other countries have
stepped up into leadership roles.”
Ahead of the talks that led to the Paris Agreement,
the U.S. launched a diplomatic blitz to convince the
world that its domestic climate rules would endure
under any future President. Trump broke that prom-
ise, and the rest of the world will likely look at new
American assurances with skepticism. If the Biden
Administration succeeds in restoring U.S. climate
credentials, it could help catalyze a global shift away
from fossil fuels, using U.S. wealth and influence to
persuade developing economies to follow its lead,
and creating space for collaboration with China amid
otherwise hostile relations.
From a scientiFic perspective, the new Admin-
istration’s commitment to addressing the climate cri-
sis comes in the nick of time. In recent years, scien-
tists have warned that the world is dangerously close
to losing any chance of keeping global warming to
no more than 1.5°C—a level that would lead to cata-
strophic effects. With that in mind, leading econo-
mists and climate activists have called for the world
to use the corona virus public-health and economic
crisis to pivot the global economy to take on the
looming climate crisis. They argue that the trillions
of stimulus dollars countries are spending should
support clean energy and green infrastructure.
Results have been lacking: some leaders have
propped up the old way of doing things, giving fossil-
fuel companies bailouts. But this moment of crisis
has produced encouraging signs that lasting change
may be afoot. Some countries have set timelines to
phase out coal mining, linked airline bailouts to re-
ducing emissions and allowed fossil- fuel companies
to go bankrupt. Seven of the world’s 10 largest econ-
omies have adopted the goal of eliminating carbon
emissions by the middle of the century. If all goes
according to plan, it will soon be eight.
