What does Joe Biden's win mean for Climate?

After seeing some of the things the EU is doing to ensure innovation is targeted at sustainability, what's happening in the United States? Since Democratic candidate Joe Biden has after decades of trying finally turned to president-elect Biden, what will this mean for the currently largest economy in the world? On their Biden-Harris Transition Page you can find climate change listed as one of the top 4 priorities of the incoming administration, right next to tackling Covid19, Economic Recovery and Racial Equity.

Right in the very first sentence of their climate change introductory text, the intricate threats of climate change to the environment, public health, communities, national security, and economic well-being are addressed, even stating that climate change will define America's future.

renewable energies will play a key role in creating jobs in the Green New Deal

But what does he want to do exactly?

On a very important, if perhaps very symbolic note, he has pledged that the US re-join the Paris Agreement that the Trump administration left, on his very first day in office. He announced the goal is to achieve a clean energy economy and make the country climate-neutral until 2050. This would mean that emissions in entire economic sectors of the economy would be reduced to an absolute minimum, while the remaining emissions would be offset by climate protection measures. Now, since the US is currently the second largest emitter after China, examining the US's actions is relevant for the whole world.

EU and Japan also made this pledge, as did China by 2060, meaning two thirds of the world economy has committed to this long term path. Experts say that to achieve this, emissions would need to be reduced by 50% by 2030, which in turn means governments will need to heavily decarbonise across the whole economy, and not only in one sector, such as energy production but also in agriculture, industry, transport and more.

I know that climate change is the challenge that's going to define our American future.

Clearly, these are very bold goals, so what is the incoming administration prioritizing to achieve them?

The answer to this question is the Green New Deal, an ambitious climate plan of $1.7 trillion in investments over the next 10 years. Some of the areas of focus will be:

Infrastructure: Since restructuring and building infrastructure is partly very labor-intensive, Biden says it holds the potential to "create millions of good, union jobs", aiming at laying a foundation for sustainable growth, competing in the global economy and increasing resilience against climate change, as well as improving public health through cleaner air and water.

Transit: The plan is to provide every city with 100.000 or more residents with zero-emissions public transportation options, ranging from light rail networks to improving existing transit and bus lines to installing infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Innovation: Here the priorities are to decrease the costs of clean energy technologies, including battery storage, carbon capture technologies, renewable hydrogen, and achieve rapid commercialization.

Power Sector: The big goal here is to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, all while creating millions of jobs.

Buildings: To help the climate in this area, the incoming government plans to upgrade 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes over 4 years, creating at least 1 million good-paying jobs with a choice to join a union. Additionally, they aim at cutting energy consumption by funding upgrades to home appliances and more efficient windows.

On the bottom line we can see how creating jobs is one of the key selling points of the Green New Deal in many areas. This is especially true for those who are not yet completely convinced human intervention is necessary to counteract the effects of human-influenced climate change. And just in case you are wondering, according to the Pew Research Center, in 2018 16% of Americans did not see climate change as a threat at all, and while that may be a minority, it still represents 52 million people (the world median is 9%), so it is not a surprise Biden is strongly stressing all the economic benefits for millions of workers.

What is the impact of this?

• For better and for worse, many of the decisions that are taken in the White House (or in this case in Wilmington, Delaware) are relevant for the whole world. This is true especially for an issue as complex and as borderless as climate change. So, if Joe Biden's policies on climate will be realized, the US will have the potential to reduce emissions by more than 2 Gigatons of CO2 equivalents, which corresponds to the emissions of all of Subsaharan Africa, where more than 1 billion people live.

What can you do?

• Well, it is too late to tell you to vote if you are American, since Biden-Harris won the presidential election, despite the unfounded claims Donald Trump is making.

• But what we, and especially voting-age Americans can do, is looking closely at what their elected officials are doing and holding them accountable for their climate policies before and during future elections.