Environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration

The environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration includes a series of laws, regulations, and programs introduced by United States President Joe Biden since he took office in January 2021. Many of the actions taken by the Biden administration reversed the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden's climate change policy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, similar to the efforts taken by the Obama administration. Biden promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. The main climate target of the Biden administration is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United States to net zero by 2050. A climate team was created to lead the effort.

On his first day in office, Biden began to make policy changes to protect the environment. He began revising and strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and ordered a number of executive orders aimed at reviewing or undoing the environmental policies of the former administration, including removal of some wildlife protections, the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and drilling for oil and gas on federal lands. In the same day he rejoined the Paris Agreement. Biden supported climate justice and sustainable transport. The Biden administration delivered a tax plan to congress aiming to replace fossil fuel subsidies, with incentives for green energy. Its proposed budget includes a 30% increase in funding for clean energy, including in rural communities. Biden has ordered the amount of energy produced from offshore wind turbines to be doubled by 2030. In April 2021, Biden hosted a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders. In November 2021, he advanced measures to reduce global warming with other world leaders at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). After four years of absence under the former president, the U.S. sought to regain its credibility. In November 2021 Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a major pillar of his environmental policy. By July 2022, the Biden administration had created 54 environmental policies and proposed 43 more. In August 2022, Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes the largest federal climate change investment in American history.

The Inflation Reduction Act alone can create $3 trillion in climate investments in the 2022-2032 period and $11 trillion in overall infrastructure investments by 2050. According to some estimates, with the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal and state measures, the United States' pledge in the Paris Agreement, 50%-52% greenhouse gas emissions reductions from 2005 by the year 2030, can be "within reach". Some environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, Earthjustice, and more claim that President Biden took 322 actions to protect the environment, more than any other president in history.

Domestic policy

In May 2022 the White House Council on Environmental Quality released a report in which it describes how Biden's administration followed the around 200 recommendations of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The full report has around 150 pages. The report summarizes many of the steps taken by the administration in the environmental domain. Among others, it mentions:

• Unprecedented funding for energy efficiency implementation and Weatherization.
• Promoting transit-oriented development, walkability, cycling, and mixed-use development.
• Promoting cooperation with Indigenous peoples of the Americas in environmental issues.

Climate team personnel as of 2021

As of 2021, the following officials compose Joe Biden's team for advancing his policy on climate change:

Name	Office	Background
Gina McCarthy	National Climate Advisor (January 2021–September 2022)	EPA administrator, environmental advisor to five governors
Ali Zaidi	National Climate Advisor (since September 2022)	Office of Management and Budget official, a lawyer focused on sustainability and climate change
John Kerry	Special Envoy for Climate Change	Secretary of State, helped to create the Paris Agreement and signed it as a representative of the United States
Jennifer Granholm	Energy Secretary	Michigan governor advocated the use of renewable energy and job creation
Deb Haaland	Interior Secretary	Member of Congress, co-sponsor of the Green New Deal
Michael Regan	Environmental Protection Agency Administrator	Secretary of North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, environmental regulator
Brenda Mallory	Director of Council on Environmental Quality	General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental lawyer
Tom Vilsack	Agriculture Secretary	Secretary of Agriculture under President Obama

Climate change mitigation policies

Further information: Political positions of Joe Biden § Environment and climate change, Environmental policy of the United States, Climate change policy of the United States, and Climate change in the United States

Biden at the opening ceremony of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021

The final target of the administration is reaching carbon neutrality in the United States by 2050. Joe Biden sees climate change as an "existential threat", a view supported by most in the scientific community. During his inauguration, Biden said: "A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear." However, some activists have criticized the administration's policies for being insufficient to prevent catastrophic climate change. Democratic control of the United States Congress raises the chances that the administration will be able to pass climate-related legislation, although members like Senator Joe Manchin hold key voting positions and could block proposed bills from passing the Senate.

Biden's climate plan changed significantly in 2020. In the beginning, it was criticized by many environmental groups as not being aggressive enough or even being detrimental contrary to prior stances on climate. Biden consulted with them, mainly through the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces, and included many of their recommendations in his plans, after which it received more support.

The administration set a target of achieving zero emissions from the power sector by 2035. Other sectors with considerable emissions are agriculture and construction. Biden's climate plan includes a strong increase in green building. According to the plan, 4 million buildings in the United States should be upgraded, as well as 2 million weatherized in the next 4 years. This is expected to create 1 million green jobs. The entire climate plan is expected to create 10 million green jobs. This number is smaller than other proposals like the Green New Deal, which claims to guarantee a job for every American.

Biden ordered the director of national intelligence Avril Haines to prepare a report about the impacts of climate change. Biden also included John Kerry – the Climate Envoy – in the National Security Council. He created a National Climate Task Force and the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. He said: "In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis and we can't wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes, we feel it, we know it in our bones." and "it's time to act". He also mentioned that climate action is linked with other aspects of his agenda such as health, jobs, and security.

As of August 2021, some calculations suppose that the infrastructure bill, the budget reconciliation bill, if passed, will cut emissions by 45% by 2030. Administrative orders from Biden and some states should increase the reduction to 50%.

In September 2021, the EPA planned to issue its final rule to reduce hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions by 85% within 15 years. HFCs are greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more potent than CO₂.

In December 2021, Biden signed an executive order directing the US government to cut its own emission by 65% by 2030 with different measures including energy efficiency, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Social cost of carbon

See also: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States

On the first day of his presidency, Biden signed an order directing a return to the Obama-era policy of taking into account the social cost of carbon when implementing new regulations, a practice that the Trump administration abandoned in 2017.

In February 2021, Biden raised the social cost of carbon in the US to $51 per ton, replacing the lower Trump Administration's estimates with the estimates developed under President Obama. This figure has an impact on EPA regulations but not on the fuel price. Carbon pricing is already in operation in a few US states. The $51 estimate is announced to be evaluated. It is lower than the EU carbon price but higher than the Chinese carbon price.

The administration has set the social cost of methane at $1,500 per tonne.

In March 2022, the court allowed the Biden administration to use the social cost of carbon, reversing a previous court ruling.

Climate legislation

In the years 2021-2022 Biden promoted 2 bills that can reduce the US greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% from the level of 2005: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Build Back Better Act. The Build Back Better Act faced strong opposition in the Senate and was not approved. A group of experts at the REPEAT Project said that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act alone will make only a small reduction in emissions, but they did not count the impact of measures regarding highways and public transport. The bill includes the largest federal investment in public transit in history. The bill includes spending of $105 billion in public transport. It also give $110 billion to fixing roads and bridges, including measures for climate change mitigation, such as access for cyclists and pedestrians.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was approved by Congress and signed by Biden into law in November 2021.

In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains the largest climate investment by the U.S. federal government in history, including over $391 billion to reduce carbon emissions. The bill, passing by a 51–50 vote in the Senate, explicitly defined carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act to make the Act's EPA enforcement provisions harder to challenge in court. With this law and additional federal and state measures, the USA can fulfill its pledge in the Paris Agreement: 50% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by the year 2030.

In 2024, the administration issued new rules which could reduce emissions by over 1 billion tonnes. Among others, coal plants for operating after 2039 must use carbon capture and storage technology.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Main article: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Biden's infrastructure plan is a major pillar in his climate policy. In the beginning Biden intended to include all his climate and infrastructure policies in one bill including $3 trillion investments with a large influence on the Greenhouse gas emissions of the United States. The plan, according to Biden's administration, should help rebuild the American economy and create millions of jobs. Biden's administration claims that economic and climate issues are linked.

In June 2021 Biden and a group of Democratic and Republican senators agreed on a compromise, a $973 billion bill. According to an official press release, "The Plan is the largest federal investment in public transit in history and is the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak." According to the document this should lower the GHG emissions of the US.

On August 10 the bill was approved by the Senate. 19 Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell, voted for it, despite criticism from Donald Trump, who called it "the beginning of the Green New Deal". The bill includes spending $105 billion for public transit, $21 billion for environmental projects, $50 billion for water storage, $15 billion for electric vehicles, and a new entity called the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure. $73 billion will be spent on power grid infrastructure and its adjustment to renewable energy. $110 billion will be spent on fixing roads and bridges, including measures for climate change mitigation such as access for cyclists and pedestrians. The plan also includes $1 billion for better connection of neighborhoods separated by transport infrastructure. According to Biden's administration the plan should add 2 million jobs per year.

In November 2021 Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included around $555  billion of new investments. The bill is a major pillar of his environmental poicy. According to its guidebook issued in 2022, it includes over 350 programs, many of which are included in the chapter of "climate, energy and the environment" (pages 149–382), while many others, also related to the environment, are included in all other chapters except "Broadband" (for example, in pages 18, 40, 61, 83, 91, 103, 414, 421, 439, 443 and many more). The programs promote energy conservation, public transport, reforestation, recycling, protection from wildfires and more.

Build Back Better Act

A potential $23 billion worth of tax credits for nuclear generating plants were included in the proposed bill while the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which became law included modest amounts to support older plants and DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ADRP).

Inflation Reduction Act

Main article: Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act is considered the most important climate legislation in the history of the USA. It is expected to make some impact internationally, possibly repositioning the country as a climate leader. It represents the largest investment into addressing climate change in United States history, including more than $391 billion to reduce carbon emissions. According to several independent analyses, the law is projected to reduce 2030 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2005 levels.

The bill aims to decrease residential energy costs by focusing on improvements to home energy efficiency. Measures include $9 billion in home energy rebate programs that focus on improving access to energy efficient technologies, and 10 years of consumer tax credits for the use of heat pumps, rooftop solar, and high-efficiency electric heating, ventilation, air conditioning and water heating. The bill extends the $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of new electric vehicles while also providing a $4,000 tax credit toward the purchase of used electric vehicles, in an effort to increase low- and middle-income access to this technology. This is projected to lead to an average of $500 in savings on energy spending for every family that receives the maximal benefit of these incentives.

The bill includes a 30% tax credit ($1,200 to $2,000 per year) and different types of rebates (reaching $14,000) for homeowners who will increase the energy efficiency of their house. In some cases, all upgrade expenses will be returned.

The bill allocates $3 billion for helping disadvantaged communities with transportation matters, including reconnecting communities separated by transport infrastructure, assuring safe and affordable transportation "and community engagement activities." This should improve clean transit. Projects improving connectivity and walkability in these neighborhoods can get grants reaching 80%-100% of the overall cost. The bill also supports biking.

There are also funds allocated to national clean energy production. This includes the continuation of the production tax credit ($30 billion) and investment tax credit ($10 billion) toward clean energy manufacturing, including solar power, wind power, and energy storage. Nonprofit entities, state and local governments and electric cooperatives are allotted more stable and secure funding for such projects than previously, without having to seek institutional investors for help.

The bill also provides funds toward the decarbonization of the economy in other areas, providing various tax credits and grants toward decarbonizing the industrial and transportation sectors. This also includes a program to reduce methane emissions from production and transportation of natural gas. The bill also provides for a focus on communities and environmental justice by providing several grants targeting historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities that have been disproportionally impacted by environmental pollution and climate change.

The law also allocates funds for rural communities and forestland, including $20 billion to invest in climate-smart agriculture, $5 billion in forest conservation and urban tree planting and $2.6 billion to protect and restore coastal habitats.

The law should cut the global greenhouse gas emissions in a level similar to "eliminating the annual planet-warming pollution of France and Germany combined" and may help to limit the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees - the target of the Paris Agreement. With the bill and additional federal and state measures, the USA can fulfill its pledge in the Paris Agreement: 50% greenhouse gas emissions reductions by the year 2030.

An assessment by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, estimated it would reduce national greenhouse gas emissions 32–42% below 2005 levels by 2030, compared to 24–35% under current policy while reducing household energy costs and improving energy security. Furthermore, Rhodium Group projects that the nuclear provisions in the bill are likely to "keep much, if not all" of the nation's nuclear reactors that are at risk of retiring, estimated to be 22–38% of the fleet, online through the 2030s.

A preliminary analysis by the REPEAT Project of Princeton University estimated that the investments made by the law would reduce net emissions 42% below 2005 levels, compared to 27% under current policies (including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).

The nonpartisan Energy Innovation Group estimated the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at 37–41% below 2005 levels in 2030, compared to 24% without the bill. This estimate of the greenhouse gas emission reduction lines up with the figure provided by the bill's authors which is a 40% reduction in carbon emissions relative to 2005 levels.

Modeling from the nonpartisan research institution Resources for the Future indicates the bill would decrease retail power costs by 5.2–6.7% over a ten-year period, resulting in savings of $170–220 per year for the average U.S. household. Also that the bill would tend to stabilize electricity prices.

In reaction to the Supreme Court case West Virginia v. EPA, which limited the EPA's authority to institute a program such as the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, Title VI of the IRA amended the Clean Air Act to explicitly designate carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride as air pollutants to unambiguously provide the EPA congressional authorization to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, as well as to promote renewable energy.

In April 2023, Goldman Sachs estimated the bill will create $3 trillion of climate investments from 2022 to 2032, $1.2 trillion of it from government incentives. The investment bank estimated the amounts different sectors will receive, finding heat pumps and other full home electrification technologies, plus electric power transmission, will get sizable amounts. By 2050 the bill is expected to generate $11 trillion in overall infrastructure investments.

Adaptation to climate change

Biden's administration spent a lot of effort on flood management and increasing climate resilience as a whole especially in communities discriminated before. In June 2023, $575 million were allocated to help coastal and Great Lakes communities, including Tribal communities, to adapt to climate change. The measures include protecting coastal ecosystems that protect communities from sea level rise, storm surge, and more. When Biden announced the allocation, he mentioned one of the nature reserves of California, saying: “These wetlands act as a critical buffer between the rising tides and the communities at risk”

In 2023 an agreement between seven states was achieved, aiming to preserve the Colorado River water system from collapse due to poor management and climate change. The country is heavily depending on this river. Some states will reduce water use, receiving compensation for it ($1.2 billion), from the federal government. Many other projects for preserving the river such as water recycling and rainwater harvesting, are advanced. The funding comes from the IIJA and IRA.

American Climate Corps

Main article: American Climate Corps

Biden created the American Climate Corps, a national service of the US government focused on climate change prevention. The program was launched in September 2023.

The tasks are not defined precisely, but will probably be "things like installing solar panels, restoring vulnerable habitats, and fire hazard prevention." According to Biden's plan, in the first year the number of participants is supposed to rise to 20,000 and then 50,000 more should be added each year by 2031. However, this plan is strongly opposed by Republicans.

On Earth Day 2024, in Prince William Forest Park created by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Biden officially launched the corps' website, in which people can apply for available jobs. 2,000 jobs were already available when the declaration was made. More than 42,000 people expressed interest in participating.

Climate-related financial and green marketing regulation

As part of the administration's long-term strategy to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, Biden issued Executive Order 14030 in May 2021 that directed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen as head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to work with FSOC members to prepare a report on member agency initiatives to include climate-related financial risk in their policies and programs, including policy actions to enhance disclosures by regulated entities to mitigate risk to the U.S. financial system from climate change. In October 2021, FSOC released the report which identified climate change as an emerging and increasing threat to the stability of the U.S. financial system. In August 2022, Section 60111 in Title VI of the Inflation Reduction Act appropriated $5 million to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created under the Clean Air Act in 2009 to support enhanced standardization and transparency of corporate greenhouse gas emission reduction commitment plans and interim targets and to support corporations progress towards implementing such plans and meeting such commitments. In May 2024, Yellen, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Podesta, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi issued a joint policy statement providing non-binding guidance to voluntary carbon markets.

CFTC and Agriculture Department

In March 2021, Acting Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Rostin Behnam announced the formation of an agency interdivisional unit to assess the impact of climate risks on futures, options, and other derivatives markets. In June 2022, the CFTC issued a request for information (RFI) to solicit public comment until October 7, 2022, to inform the agency's response to the recommendations made in the October 2021 FSOC report on climate-related financial risk and hosted a convening for voluntary carbon market participants to discuss improving the credibility of carbon credits. In April 2023, in remarks made at an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Behnam stated that the CFTC has the clear legal authority to oversee the carbon credits market to prevent securities fraud and market manipulation (as carbon credits are financial derivatives of an underlying commodity) but not to establish standards for carbon credit registries, and that the CFTC was considering hosting a second convening for voluntary carbon market participants later in the year before formulating an agency policy on carbon credits.

In June 2023, the CFTC announced that it would host a second convening the following month and the CFTC Whistleblower Office announced that it was seeking tips for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act in carbon credit markets. In December 2023, the CFTC released a rule proposal for carbon credit derivative exchange listing to public comment that requires commodities exchanges that trade carbon credit derivatives to verify to quality of their underlying carbon offsets, and CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero stated in May 2024 that the agency expected the rule to be finalized by the end of the year and possibly as early as the following September.

In December 2022, Title I of Division HH of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 enacted the Growing Climate Solutions Act requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to evaluate and make a determination of whether to create a Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program that would create a voluntary registry for private businesses, non-profit organizations, or public agencies that act as third-party verifiers of carbon credits for agricultural or forestry carbon offset projects with standardized registration qualifications for participating entities and standardized protocols for ensuring the transparency of carbon credits verified by the registered entities in the program. In October 2023, the Department of Agriculture released an assessment report pursuant to the Growing Climate Solutions Act to provide an overview of the agriculture and forestry carbon credits market that concluded that there were barriers to participation in the market by U.S. farmers, ranchers, and foresters (e.g. limited return on investment due to high upfront and transaction costs, greenhouse gas data quantification, collection, verification, and reporting, permanent carbon sequestration requirements, and market confusion over carbon market programs due to inconsistent standards) that could be addressed by the department by implementing the Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program. In February 2024, the Department of Agriculture released a report that announced that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had determined that the department would establish the program.

EBSA

In March 2021, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Labor Department announced that it would review and not enforce a Trump administration final rule for fiduciaries in proxy voting under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to consider pecuniary interests only and not environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors in investments for 401(k)s pursuant to Executive Order 13990. In October 2021, EBSA proposed reversing the Trump administration ERISA final rule for fiduciaries in proxy voting on ESG investments for 401(k)s. In November 2022, EBSA announced a final rule removing the Trump administration pecuniary interest only requirement for fiduciaries in proxy voting under ERISA when considering ESG investments for 401(k)s. In March 2023, in the first veto of his administration, Biden rejected a bill passed by the 118th United States Congress on party-line votes to overturn the EBSA ERISA 401(k) fiduciary proxy voting rule for ESG investments finalized the previous November.

Federal Reserve and Treasury

In August 2021, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) of the U.S. Treasury Department issued an RFI for climate-related financial risks to the U.S. insurance industry pursuant to Executive Order 14030. In November 2021, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu stated at a conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal for sustainable business that climate risk guidance for bank stress tests issued by his office would be consistent with stress test principles proposed by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). The next month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a draft regulatory guidance statement to banks for identifying climate risks and for climate risk management (CRM). In February 2022, the FIO announced that it had joined the NGFS. In March 2022, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a request for public comment on draft guidance for CRM for financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets. In September 2022, the OCC announced the appointment of a chief climate risk officer who would report directly to the Comptroller. In October 2022, the FIO issued a request for comment on a proposed home and property insurance data collection aggregated at the ZIP Code level to assess climate-related impacts on insurability pursuant to Executive Order 14030.

In December 2022, the OCC chief climate risk officer stated at a conference hosted by Ceres that the OCC climate risk regulatory guidance for banks was issued to encourage banking institutions to adopt CRM policies and not to promote carbon neutrality pledges. In the same month, the Federal Reserve also issued a request for public comment on draft guidance for CRM for financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets. In January 2023, the Federal Reserve announced that the six largest U.S. banks (Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo) would have until July 31, 2023, to complete a pilot climate scenario exercise analysis of climate risks to their loan portfolios and commercial real estate holdings in the Northeastern United States. In June 2023, the Federal Insurance Office of the U.S. Treasury Department released a report pursuant to Executive Order 14030 that found that climate risk oversight was becoming increasingly critical for state insurance regulators, and along with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), state regulators were incorporating climate risk into supervision and regulation of the U.S. insurance industry but that most efforts remained preliminary. In October 2023, the OCC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve issued joint non-binding regulatory guidance for CRM for financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets.

In November 2023, the FIO submitted its home and property insurance data collection request to the Office of Management and Budget for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act. In March 2024, the NAIC sent letters to 400 home insurance companies requesting detailed data on policy pricing and structuring to investigate affordability and availability issues of home insurance in collaboration with the FIO. In May 2024, the Federal Reserve released a summary of the results of the pilot exercise analysis which found that the participating banks had significant modeling difficulties due to a lack comprehensive and consistent data on building characteristics, insurance coverage, and counter-party CRM policies, but concluded that better understanding and monitoring of indirect socioeconomic impacts from climate change and chronic climate risks are important for CRM, that insurance performs a crucial role in climate risk mitigation for consumers, businesses, and banks and changes in the insurance industry need to be monitored, and that climate risks are highly uncertain and difficult to measure to the point where the participating banks had difficulty determining how to incorporate climate risks into business-as-usual frameworks for risk management.

FTC

In December 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was seeking public comment until February 21, 2023, for potential revisions to agency guidelines made pursuant to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 for preventing deceptive green marketing practices for claims about carbon offsets, compostability, biodegradability, oxo-biodegradability, photodegradability, ozone safety, recyclability, recycled content, energy use and energy efficiency, organic products, and sustainability. In January 2023, the FTC extended the public comment window for the revisions to its green marketing guidelines until April 24, 2023. In March 2023, the FTC announced that it would host a workshop about recycling marketing claims as part of its review for its green marketing guidelines on May 23, 2023.

SEC and Justice Department

In February 2021, Acting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Allison Lee announced that the SEC would open a review of climate-related disclosures for public companies to update regulatory guidance the agency issued in 2010 for such disclosures. In March 2021, the SEC announced that examination of regulatory compliance related to disclosures for climate change and ESG would be an area of focus for the agency in 2021, and the SEC also announced the creation of a task force to pursue enforcement cases against investment fund managers and public companies for deceptive marketing for ESG investment funds and for false or misleading statements in climate risk disclosures. In August 2021, the SEC and the Eastern New York U.S. Attorney's Office were reportedly investigating the DWS Group (the asset management division of Deutsche Bank) after its former chief sustainability officer leaked internal emails and company presentations to The Wall Street Journal that showed that the company had overstated its ESG investment efforts. In remarks made by video conference to the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in September 2021, SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the agency was preparing recommendations for new disclosure requirements for ESG investment funds.

Also in September 2021, the SEC released a list of letters sent to the chief financial officers of certain public companies to request that the companies provide greater information to investors about climate risks to financial earnings or business operations. In November 2021, the SEC rescinded a Trump administration rule issued in 2017 that permitted company managers to exclude ESG proposals from shareholders in annual proxy statements. In December 2021, the U.S. Justice Department informed Deutsche Bank that it may have violated its deferred prosecution agreement from the previous January for failing to inform prosecutors of their former chief sustainability officer's internal complaint about the DWS Group's overstating of its ESG investment efforts. In March 2022, the SEC approved a rules proposal to require the disclosure of climate risks, CRM policies, and carbon footprint accounting (including the use of carbon offsets) by public companies in 10-K forms and other SEC filings pursuant to Sections 7, 10, 19(a), and 28 of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 3(b), 12, 13, 15, 23(a), and 36 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and modeled on the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. In the same month, Deutsche Bank agreed to extend the term of an external compliance monitor until February 2023 from its 2015 settlement with the Justice Department to address its failure to disclose the internal ESG complaint from its former chief sustainability officer the previous August.

In May 2022, the SEC extended the public comment window for its climate disclosure rule proposal until June 17, 2022, and proposed two rules changes to ESG investment fund qualifications to prevent greenwashing marketing practices and to increase disclosure requirements for achieving ESG impacts. In June 2022, the SEC was reportedly investigating the ESG investment funds of Goldman Sachs for potential greenwashing. In testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee in September 2022, Gensler stated that public companies subject to the carbon footprint disclosure rule would not be required to solicit carbon footprint accounting from their small business suppliers. In October 2022, the SEC announced that it would re-open the public comment windows for the climate disclosure rule proposal and for the ESG disclosure rules proposal due to a technical error with the SEC public comment internet submission form. In November 2022, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $4 million to settle the SEC investigation of the company's ESG funds for greenwashing without admitting or denying guilt of the SEC's allegations.

In February 2023, the SEC Division of Examinations announced that oversight of ESG investment funds would be among six top priorities for the agency in 2023, while Gensler stated in an interview that the agency was making adjustments to the climate disclosure rule proposed the previous March after the agency received nearly 15,000 public comments on the rule proposal. In March 2023, Gensler suggested in an interview with the Council of Institutional Investors that the Scope 3 emissions disclosure requirement included in the climate disclosure rule proposal could be scaled back due to Scope 3 emissions accounting being less well-developed, and stated that the climate disclosure rule proposal had received the largest number of public comments for a rule proposal in the agency's history. In April 2023, Gensler testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on the climate disclosure rule proposal. In September 2023, Gensler stated in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee that agency staff was reviewing the public comments on the climate disclosure rule proposal with a particular focus on Scope 3 reporting and reiterated that the proposed rule would apply only to public companies.

In remarks made after a speech given at Yale Law School in February 2024, Gensler stated that the climate disclosure rule was being drafted to withstand judicial scrutiny and referred to anticipated litigation over the rule as part of the rulemaking process. In March 2024, the SEC voted to issue the final rule on climate risk, climate risk management, and carbon footprint accounting. While the SEC final rule removed mandatory Scope 3 emissions reporting, more than 3,000 U.S. publicly traded companies were still required to disclose such emissions under European Union law as well as companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue under California state law at the time of the SEC final rule approval. In the same month, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an administrative stay of the rule's implementation in a lawsuit challenging the rule, and the SEC announced that it would stay implementation of the rule while legal challenges were consolidated before the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

CCS and CDR industry policies

In February 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would steer $30 billion in farm aid from the Commodity Credit Corporation to farmers implementing regenerative farming practices (e.g. carbon farming) to enhance carbon sequestration. Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Biden signed into law in November 2021, a $12 billion appropriation was made for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects.

In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $3.5 billion program funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create four large-scale regional direct air capture (DAC) hubs each consisting of a network of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. Under the CHIPS and Science Act that Biden signed into law in August 2022, a $1 billion appropriation was included to fund CDR research, development, and deployment.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that Biden also signed into law in August 2022, a $20 billion appropriation was made to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for oversubscribed programs (including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program) to assist farmers with conservation practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase carbon sequestration in soil and trees (and other climate-smart agricultural practices).

Also, the IRA authorized the creation of the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program, a $5 billion loan guarantee program for projects to repurpose shuttered fossil fuel energy production facilities for clean energy production or to update existing energy production facilities with emissions control technologies including CCS, and also increased the Section 45Q federal tax credit for CCS projects to $85 per metric ton of CO₂ sequestered from $50 per ton and for DAC projects to $180 per metric ton of permanent CDR from $50 per ton, while the tax credit for the use of captured CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) or other uses was increased to $60 per metric ton from $35 per metric ton for CCS and to $130 per metric ton from $35 per metric ton for DAC.

In October 2022, the Global CCS Institute (of which the U.S. Department of Energy is a member organization) released a report on the global status of CCS projects that stated that there were 13 operational projects, 68 projects in development, and 2 projects with suspended operations in the United States (among 61 new CCS projects that had been announced over the previous year and 196 projects that were operational or in development worldwide in total).

Energy efficiency

Main article: Energy conservation in the United States

The executive order requiring federal agencies to cut emissions issued on 8 December 2021 contained measures about energy efficiency (sections 205, 206, 605).

By the end of the year 2021, the Joe Biden administration reversed some of the rules established under Trump that reduced energy efficiency, but many of them remained in place.

The administration released unprecedented funding for energy efficiency and weatherization. The Weatherization Assistance Program alone gave $3.5 billion for the effort, resulting in 700,000 low-income households that increased energy efficiency and paid less for energy. $8.7 billion were spent through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). This program primarily helped households with children, elderly individuals, and people with disabilities.

In June 2022, Biden announced a new initiative for increasing energy efficiency in buildings, reducing payments for energy from households at the same time. At least $225 million were scheduled to be spent on it.

In February 2023 the United States Department of Energy proposed a set of new energy efficiency standards that, if implemented, will save to users of different electric machines in the United States around $3,500,000,000 per year and will reduce by the year 2050 carbon emissions by the same amount as emitted by 29,000,000 houses.

In October 2023 the Senate in a bipartisan vote rejected a proposal that could hurt policies promoting energy efficiency in houses. An opponent of the proposal argued the policies can save to a homeowner $15,000 in average. The amount of money expected to be saved is not uniform but depend on climate zone. The report that calculated the gains divided the country into 8 zones from very hot and humid climate (zone 1) to subarctic and arctic (zone 8). The whole life cycle savings vary "from as low as $7,536 in Climate Zone 2, to a high of $46,836 in Climate Zone 8."

Land and ocean conservation

Biden's administration set a goal of protecting 30% of the land and the water of the US. Currently, 12% of land and 26% of water are protected. The plan for achieving the target is called "America the Beautiful" and include many measures like expanding urban green spaces and collaboration with indigenous people. The initiative includes $1 billion in grants for community-based conservation and restoration projects.

In October 2021, President Biden announced the expansion of Bears Ears National Monument, Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, restoring the original areas and protections that were reduced by President Trump.

President Biden created Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument in 2022 and Avi Kwa Ame National Monument and Castner Range National Monument in 2023.

In March 2023, Biden directed the Department of Commerce to designate the Pacific Remote Islands as a National Marine Sanctuary, expanding the protections of Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Biden's administration launched a plan for protecting the oceans called "Ocean Climate Action Plan". It includes measures for protecting and restoring many marine and coastal ecosystems, stopping climate change with the help of these ecosystems and helping communities depending on them.

According to a report from the Center for American Progress, the administration of Joe Biden reached a record in conservation. In 3 years of ruling it conserved or in the process of conserving more than 24 millions acres of public land and in 2023 alone more than 12.5 million acres of public land became protected area. It is doing it together with the indigenouse people as 200 agreements of co-stewardship with them were signed in 2023 alone.

In April 2024 Biden unveiled a plan to protect and restore natural water sources (3.2 million hectares of wetlands and 161,000 km of rivers and streams).

In April 2024, the Interior Department issued a new rule that will allow 245 million acres of federal property to be leased for conservation purposes. It resembles the way oil companies lease land for drilling and raises conservation, recreation and renewable energy development to the same legal status that mining enjoys. This goal is to help protect public lands from the impacts of climate change and development. Some Republicans have ridiculed the move as a "land grab," and talk of a legal challenge.

Oil and gas pipelines

The Biden administration supports the Line 3 pipeline owned by the Canadian corporation Enbridge. However, the pipeline was still facing significant resistance as of September 2021.

In January 2021, President Biden halted further development of the Keystone Pipeline by way of an executive order, which also directed agencies to review and reverse more than 100 Trump administration actions on the environment. In June 2021, the pipeline project was canceled. It was considered an environmental threat by environmentalists, indigenous peoples, and the Biden administration.

Environmental reviews of projects

In January 2021, Biden took some actions to improve the link between science and the policies of his administration on environmental issues. It includes improving the environmental reviews of big projects before they are given approval according to the NEPA, improving the function of the Environmental Protection Agency, and reestablishing a scientific body to calculate the social cost of all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. He ordered a stop to the oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as stating that the voices of indigenous peoples should be taken into consideration in the process of approving projects. He has also begun the process of installing standards for methane emissions.

In October 2021, the Biden administration filed an application for a mineral withdrawal which will put a hold on the development of a copper mine near Ely, Minnesota while the environmental impacts are studied. The proposed mine is located on the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, an area that is popular for canoeing, fishing, and hiking, and is the country's most visited wilderness area. The Obama administration had launched a similar study but 24 weeks into the 28 week study the newly elected Trump administration ended it, allowing the plans for the mining operation to continue. The completed study could lead to a 20-year ban on mining upstream from the BWCAW.

In April 2022, the Biden administration restored components of an environmental law (NEPA) from the 1970s that were abolished by Trump, requiring consideration of climate impacts and local community interests before approving major projects.

In January 2024 Biden's administration announced a pause in the approval of projects linked to the export of Liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries which are not members of free trade agreements with the USA until the environmental impacts will be fully reviewed. As a result, a number of projects linked with very high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions could be canceled. The climate movement hailed the decision and a planned protest of environmentalists was canceled. Republicans and the fossil fuel industry support the projects, saying they are needed for the US economy and security, especially due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The USA is currently the biggest producer and consumer of oil and gas and recently became the biggest gas exporter to European countries which want to stop using Russian gas. Some scientists say LNG is better than coal; others argue it is worse, due to high methane emissions. The USA LNG export capacity is expected to be two times bigger in 2027 due to already approved projects.

However, in July 2024, after 16 Republican-governed states sued, Louisiana federal judge James D. Cain Jr. issued an injunction on the suspension of LNG export regulatory approvals.

Drilling on public lands

One week after becoming president, Biden signed several executive orders aimed at combatting climate change and protecting the environment. He ordered the Interior Secretary to stop new oil and gas drilling in federal lands and water, and a review of existing projects. However, these pauses were only temporary and didn't stop drilling permanently. Another order sets a target of protecting 30% of United States lands and waters by 2030, as well as set in motion the creation of a plan for climate financing and a climate target for the United States. Biden also signed a presidential memorandum establishing a process for documenting any instances in which "improper political interference" interfered with research or distorted data. Biden also increased the social cost of carbon to $51, the price that had been set by the Obama administration but had been slashed to $7 by Trump.

In response to the reviews, the Interior Department stopped many of the oil and gas drilling projects, took measures for the protection of wild animals, and restored national monuments. It is also preparing a review of the entire oil and gas leasing program of the United States. However, the Biden administration does support an oil drilling project, known as "Willow", which was approved by the Trump administration. This decision was criticized by environmentalists.

In early June 2021, the Interior Department suspended all oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This national wildlife refuge includes around 20 million acres where snowy owls, caribou and other endangered wildlife lives. Days later, a federal court issued a temporary injunction against the Interior Department action, pending litigation filed by more than a dozen states.

Attorneys general from Republican states successfully sued to lift the suspension that Biden had placed on the selling of federal gas and oil leases and on September 17 energy companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell bid $192 million for drilling rights on federal gas and oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. In November 2021, it was reported that the Biden administration was preparing lease some 80 million acres to gas and oil drilling companies. More than 250 indigenous, social justice, and environmental groups wrote a letter to the Biden administration asking Biden to keep his promise to end new leases on public waters and lands and stop the sale which they believe "makes a mockery" of the climate commitments made at COP26. The lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico was further criticized after the Department of Justice debunked the justification that the sale was legally required by the June 2021 ruling blocking the pause on oil leases.

In January 2022, a federal judge remanded the lease auction back to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for relying on a distorted Trump-era environmental impact assessment. The administration also proposed another round of gas and oil lease sales in 2022, in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and other western states.

In February 2022, the Biden administration suspended any further oil and gas leases on public lands. The decision came after a Trump-appointed judge reversed the social cost of carbon of $51 per ton, the figure established by Obama and restored by Biden, back to $7 per ton which had been Trump's cost estimate. The reversal was a result of a suit by 10 Republican attorneys general.

In May 2022 the administration abolished 3 leases in the Mexican Gulf and Alaska. One of the reasons was "a lack of industry interest".

Renewable energy

See also: Renewable energy in the United States

In his proposed 2022 budget, the Biden Administration has proposed a $10 billion investment in clean energy research and development, an increase of 30%. The budget also proposes $2 billion to be invested in green energy projects, as well as setting aside reserves of $6.5 billion to lend to communities to lend to rural communities in support of additional green energy, power storage, and transmission projects. Biden has ordered the amount of energy produced from offshore wind turbines to be doubled by 2030.

In April 2023, the Biden administration announced that it would make $450 million in funding available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for clean energy demonstration projects in coal mining communities to convert current and former mines into clean energy projects, as well as $16 million in funding to the University of North Dakota and West Virginia University to create design studies for a full-scale refinery facility to extract and separate rare-earth elements and other minerals (including those needed in electric vehicle batteries) from coal ash, acid mine drainage, and other mine waste.

In May 2024, the Biden administration doubled tariffs on solar cells imported from China and more than tripled tariffs on lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries imported from China. The increased tariffs will be phased in over a period of three years.

Nuclear energy

See also: Nuclear energy policy of the United States

$6.6 billion is provided in the new infrastructure law to keep older nuclear power plants from being prematurely decommissioned. Biden initiatives fully funded two new reactor demonstration projects, X-energy and TerraPower.

In 2024, with overwhelming majorities Congress passed S. 870, containing the ADVANCE Act, which directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to improve its assessments of new nuclear technology and fuels, cuts regulatory approval costs for advanced reactor designs, creates a grant prize competition for deployment of Generation IV reactors, and streamlines Energy Department export controls for nuclear technology.

Fossil fuel subsidies

The Biden administration has delivered a tax plan to congress that aims to start winding back fossil fuel subsidies, replacing the subsidies with incentives to start producing green energy. It is estimated that ending tax subsidies for those companies could save the American taxpayer $121 billion over the course of the next decade. He has also stated his ambition to make the United States' power sector completely free of fossil fuels by 2035, and will bring a law to congress with a legal commitment to make the grid 80% clean by 2030. He has also made a commitment to ensure that all federal vehicles are electric. In a series of executive orders at the beginning of his presidency, Biden ordered an increase in the production of renewable energy on federal lands and water, the creation of the Civilian Climate Corps, and making the fossil fuel companies responsible for repairing faults that lead to environmental damage. As a part of a commitment to environmental justice, he also stated that 40% of all climate investments will be sent to the most historically vulnerable communities, and created a special body for dealing with the issue, the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council.

Deforestation and wildlife

See also: Deforestation in the United States

On the first day of his presidency, the Biden administration ordered a broad review of Trump-era policies pertaining to wildlife in the United States, including the gutting of the Migratory Birds Treaty Act and his decision to strip a number of animals, including gray wolves and the northern spotted owl, of their protections under the Endangered Species Act. In June 2021, the Biden administration announced that they were beginning the process of restoring and strengthening wildlife protections that were loosened under the Trump Administration, mainly in regards to the weakening of protections granted to endangered animals under the Endangered Species Act, and the extent to which their habitats have to be protected. In June 2022, the Biden administration restored a rule that broadened the definition of a “critical habitat” and allowed more protection of endangered species. This reversed a rule that Trump put into place right before leaving office, which limited the definition of a “critical habitat” to areas that could have sustained endangered species at the time, excluding places that could potentially sustain them in the future.

In November 2021, Biden promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030, in the COP26 climate summit's first major agreement. In the same month, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory to financial institutions to increase scrutiny of financial transactions potentially tied to wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and illegal fishing and the advisory was the first in the agency's history to prevent environmental crimes.

Transportation

The transportation sector is the biggest emitter of CO₂ in the United States, and reducing transportation emissions will require a large-scale transition to carbon-free transportation. Biden promised to give all cities with populations greater than 100,000 people good public transport with low carbon options. United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is expected to work toward achieving the goals, but nothing had been put into action as of June 2021. Biden plans to increase the use of "zero carbon" transport, including cycling and walking.

In August 2021, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards for Model Years 2023 through 2026. The 2023 target would call for a 9.8% reduction over the 2022 target with subsequent year-over-year reductions of approximately 5%.

In December 2021, the new greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles were adopted. They were 6% stronger than the original proposition made in August and were estimated to prevent the emission of 3.1 billion tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. The benefits of the new standards overpass the cost by $190 billion, including savings on fuel, reduction of the impacts of climate change and air pollution. According to the EPA the reduction is "equivalent to more than half the total U.S. CO₂ emissions in 2019". The rules should cut the emissions from passenger cars and trucks (17% of the US greenhouse gas emissions) by 5%-10% in the years 2023–2026.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes:

• $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers
• $5 billion for a "Clean School Bus Program"
• $350 million for new wildlife crossings and corridors pilot project
• $250 million for an electric or low-emissions ferry pilot program
• $250 million to reduce truck idling at ports

Biden's administration promoted transit-oriented development, walkability, cycling, and mixed-use development among other by creating community-based transport hubs. This was done mainly in low income neighborhoods. $1 billion will be spent on reconnecting neighborhoods.

In April 2023, the EPA proposed new tailpipe emissions limits that the agency estimated could require 67 percent of all new automobiles sold in the United States to be electric by 2032 (surpassing the previous commitment by the Biden administration under Executive Order 14037 for electric cars to make up 50 percent of new automobile sales by 2030).

In November 2023 a new federal rule was adopted, requiring local authorities to measure GHG emissions from transportation and to prepare a plan how to reduce them, with concrete targets, by 1 February 2024. Progress will be measured every 2 years. Support of EV use, walking and cycling, and prioritizing maintenance of existing roads instead of building new ones, can help to achieve the needed reduction. Some states cheered the new rule while some opposed it. The Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt expressed hope for more support, saying that climate disasters are becoming more frequent and his agency received requests for help worth around $1 billion due to such disasters in one year.

Agriculture

Biden pledged to cut emissions from the agriculture sector in the US by 50% by 2030. In February 2022 the United States Department of Agriculture begun to implement a program designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector in the US. The sector accounts for over 10% of the overall emissions. The program includes $1 billion in spending on methods like No-till farming, Crop rotation, Carbon capture and storage, Manure management and Rotational grazing. The program includes measures regarding Forests. The agriculture sector in the USA has already heavily suffered from different impacts of climate change. In October 2023, the Senate approved $8.5 million in funding for urban agriculture.

Helping non-governmental organizations

Biden delivered $27 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (which is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act) to 8 environmental Non-governmental organizations. The Fund's investments are supposed to reduce the CO₂ emissions of the US by 40 million tonnes per year, while delivering 70% of the benefits to low income communities. The money can go to tens of thousands different projects, such as, for example, making energy efficient houses.

Indigenous people

The administration spent many efforts on enhancing cooperation with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, among others, by creating a consultation mechanism for assuring their voice will be heard for environmental justice initiatives. Different tribes and villages received help in protection from different effects of climate change.

The Biden administration provided a total of $120 million to support tribes impacted by the effects of climate change. The funding consists of $25 million from the annual allocations for fiscal year 2023, $72 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, and $23 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The program covers a variety of initiatives, including planning for climate adaptation, drought management, wildland fire mitigation measures, community-driven relocation and management of the ocean and coastline.

On October 8, 2021, Joe Biden delivered the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day, providing the most substantial boost yet to efforts to redirect the federal holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Indigenous people. On the same day, the Biden administration unveiled its plans to restore land for two significant national monuments in Utah that Trump had stripped of protections. One of them, Bears Ears National Monument, is situated on what Indigenous tribes recognize as sacred ground.

International policy

Paris climate agreement

John Kerry (right), U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and his Russian counterpart Ruslan Edelgeriyev in Moscow on July 12, 2021

Upon his first hours in office on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order bringing the United States back into the Paris Climate Agreement, after President Trump announced the country's withdrawal in 2017. The move was welcomed by environmental groups and by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, congratulated Biden, stating that with the United States rejoining the agreement, the countries responsible for two-thirds of the global greenhouse gas emission will have made pledges to become carbon neutral. Without the United States, it was only half. President of France Emmanuel Macron congratulated Biden saying, 'Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!'

In February 2021, The United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement. Speaking about the occasion, John Kerry mentioned the urgent need to act on climate change in the next 10 years, the impact that climate change will have on the future, and the impacts that it is already having, such as the latest extreme cold events in the USA that in his opinion is "related to climate because the polar vortex penetrates further south because of the weakening of the jet stream related to warming." This opinion is shared by many climate scientists.

One week after Biden became president, he also began the process of creating a special plan for providing financial help for low-income countries in addressing issues related to climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation.

In February 2021, Biden issued an order to begin the process of identification of climate refugees and finding ways to help those people.

The Biden administration is urging China to speed up its commitment to becoming carbon neutral, with John Kerry saying that its pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2060 is "not good enough".

2021 climate leaders summit

Main article: 2021 Leaders' Climate Summit

On the 22–23 April 2021, Biden hosted a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders, organised by the administration.

At the summit, Biden announced a new target for the US, previously having no Nationally Determined Contribution due to their withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The new target aims to reduce GHG emissions by 50% - 52% by 2030 relative to the level of 2005, the amount specified by experts to adequately limit temperature rise. The new target is described as a considerable step forward in the fight against climate change, although still not enough to limit global temperature rise to under the 1.5 degrees target. Overall, the commitments made at the summit reduce the gap between the government's current pledges and the 1.5 degrees target by 12% - 14%. If the pledges are accomplished, global emissions by 2030 will fall by 2.6% - 3.7% GtCO₂e more than they would have with the pledges before the summit.

At the beginning of May 2021, Climate Action Tracker released a more detailed report about the significance of the summit. According to the report, the summit, together with other pledges made from September 2020, reduce the expected rise in temperature by 2100 by 0.2 degrees. If all pledges are fulfilled, temperatures will rise by 2.4 °C, compared to the 2.9 °C increase that would arise from business-as-usual. In the most optimistic scenario, if the countries also fulfill the pledges that are not part of the Paris Agreement, temperatures will rise by 2.0 °C.

Biden's administration also launched a number of coalitions and initiatives aimed at stopping climate change and helping to reduce its impacts. These include a Global Climate Ambition Initiative for helping low-income countries to achieve emissions targets and a "Net-Zero Producers Forum, with Canada, Norway, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, together representing 40% of global oil and gas production"

United Nations climate summits

Main article: 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference

John Kerry joins Joe Biden at the First Movers Coalition of COP26

In November 2021, world leaders met at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to negotiate goals to reduce global warming. While there was some progress, it is believed that the agreements reached are not sufficient to avoid the worst damage.

Developing countries, which have already faced hardships due to intense droughts and flooding, asked that developed countries, largely responsible for global warming, establish a fund to help them cope. The more well-to-do nations, including the U.S., refused.

One of the successes of the conference was the US - China agreement on fighting climate change together. The framework includes commitments to:

• Working for achieving halt in temperature rise on 2 and preferably 1.5 degrees, global Carbon neutrality.
• Establishing environmental standards and policies needed for the transition to clean economy.
• Moving toward Circular economy.
• Control and reduce Methane emissions. China will adopt a national methane reduction plan as the U.S. has already done. In the first half of 2022 both countries will convene a meeting to accelerate the process.
• Increase Energy efficiency and usage of Renewable energy. The U.S. will make its electricity sector, carbon pollution-free by 2035.
• Working to stop globally the use of unabated thermal coal power generation. China will lower the use of coal how much it can during the 15th Five Year Plan.
• Working to stop illegal deforestation by stopping illegal imports.
• Giving financial and capacity building help to other countries.
• Submitting new NDC to the year 2035 by 2025.
• Create a special body: ""Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s," that will coordinate the implementation of this agreement.

At the conference, 40 countries, including the U.S. and five institutions promised to stop financing carbon intensive projects abroad by the end of the year 2022.

At the conference US and UAE launched an initiative named "the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate)". In February 2022 the US gave 1 billion dollars to GHG emissions, cutting from its agricultural sector what can be considered as part of the implementation. The initiative needs another 8 billion dollars for being implemented as well.

Bilateral climate issues

The Biden administration ended the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) established under Obama. CERC had been the most ambitious clean energy cooperation platform between the two countries, and one of the few cooperation mechanisms to have survived the Trump administration.

International carbon accounting reporting standards

In July 2023, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are board members and whose members agencies regulate more than 95 percent of worldwide market capitalization, endorsed the climate reporting standards created by the International Sustainability Standards Board (including for Scope 3 reporting).

Reception

Environmental organizations and scientists responded positively to the Biden administration's actions on climate change on the first day of his presidency. The decisions taken one week later were similarly welcomed by environmental groups, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sunrise Movement and partially by the Indigenous Environmental Network. However, the Western Energy Alliance filed a lawsuit against the decision to stop giving new permits for oil and gas drilling in federal lands and waters, whilst the Indigenous Environmental Network said that the decision did not go far enough. There is also concern that the ban on new oil and gas drilling on public lands will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions because less than half of the existing permits are presently in use.

Some have criticized Biden's environmental policies on the premise that they will eliminate jobs, a popular Republican argument against Biden in the 2020 election. Biden has countered that his policies will actually create jobs in the transition to a green economy. There is also the argument that climate change, if not acted upon, would cause the loss of many more jobs than any climate action on the part of the Biden Administration would. According to Energy Innovation, a program aimed at reaching zero emissions by 2050, could save the U.S. 3.5 trillion dollars if it starts being implemented now, compared to a scenario in which it will begin to be implemented in 2030.

The Biden administration's environmental policy has been characterized as a return to the Obama administration's climate change policy of reducing carbon emissions with the goal of conserving the environment for future generations. However, according to a letter sent to the administration by a group of young climate activists, returning to the policy of Obama and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 will not be enough to stabilize the climate. Others have criticized Biden's environmental policies for being too conservative, believing that they do not go far enough in comparison to policies put in place by politicians like the Green Party's Howie Hawkins, who created the original version of the Green New Deal, or Biden's primary rival Bernie Sanders.

The attorney general of 21 Republican-led states sued Biden for canceling the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline. The attorney general of 14 Republican-led states sued him for the moratorium on new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters. Many of those states suffer from severe, climate change induced, heat wave and drought. Farmers are among the most affected.

In February 2022, around 100 religious leaders called to Biden and Congress to pass the Build Back Better bill for protecting the climate. Those included Christians, Jews and others. Around 80% of Catholic woman are members in the organizations that signed the letter. One of them mentioned that the bill sets a spending of 555 billion dollars through several years while the Senate approved spending of 770 billion in 1 year for military tasks.

In 2024 several environmental organizations including Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, Earthjustice issued a memorandum, saying that Biden made for protecting the environment more than any other president in history. They presented a list of 322 actions made by the administration to achieve the goal.

Executive orders

• Executive Order 13990 (signed 20 January 2021): "Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis"
• Executive Order 14007 (signed 27 January 2021): "Executive Order on Establishing President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology"
• Executive Order 14008 (signed 27 January 2021): "Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad"
• Executive Order 14013 (signed 4 February 2021): "Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration"
• Executive Order 14057 (signed 8 December 2021): "Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability"
• Executive Order 14096 (signed 21 April 2023): "Executive Order on Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All"
• "Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking" (signed 27 January 2021)

References

Bundled references