For: The Paris Climate Accords – An Opportunity for America
Kerstin Gordon
Intern
Hours after being officially sworn in, President Biden reasserted America’s promise in the global fight against climate change by reentering the Paris Climate Accord. The move signals that the world’s second-largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions is committed to reducing emissions and meeting its goals as part of the international community. In the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication efforts, The Paris Climate Accord was a landmark effort.
Under the previous administration of President Trump, the US exited the agreement in 2017 and lost progress on meeting the 26-28 percent reduction as called for by the Obama administration. According to the US Energy Information Administration, U.S. emissions in 2019 were at modern lows but will need to make up for lost time if it wants to stay on pace with the 2050 target. The decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord centered on the claim that the agreement’s goals would hinder job growth, drag on competitiveness, and wreak havoc on the middle-class economy which is heavily dependent upon the fossil fuel industry.
Biden comes into the Oval Office fresh off of the “Build Back Better” campaign, which proposes a $2 trillion clean-energy and infrastructure bill that aims for a decarbonized electric grid in fifteen years and ultimately, carbon neutrality by 2050. Amidst the backdrop of a global pandemic and crippling unemployment numbers, all eyes will be on the Biden administration as they are put to the test to create steady job growth, restore confidence in the country’s commitment to climate change, and lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Despite common belief that green jobs favored by the Biden Administration will not fill the void created by the destruction of traditional energy jobs, this is not the case. The annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) conducted by the Department of Energy found that clean energy jobs will outpace fossil fuel paychecks, with wind and solar being amongst the fastest growing sector with a projected 61 percent and 51 percent respective growth rate over the next ten years. Critics echo that the U.S.’s participation in the Paris Climate Agreement takes jobs away from oil and natural gas workers but should find comfort that Biden’s mobilization efforts will cushion the economy’s transformation as the demand for renewable energy inches upward.
The transition to clean energy does not have to be a draconian measure. To ensure that the middle-class is not left out, it will require a federally unified effort on finance, technology, and capacity generation. According to the Brookings Institute, the transition to the clean energy economy will primarily involve 320 unique occupations within the clean energy production, energy efficiency, and environmental management sectors and will lead to more equitable and higher wages. The study found that mean hourly wages in the clean energy economy exceed that of the national average by 8-19 percent with a relatively lower educational requirement, citing that nearly 50 percent of workers have no more than a high school diploma. Yet, earnings are on par with their similarly educated peers across other sectors.
Luckily, for the 3.6 million Americans employed in the traditional energy sector, the skills required for a clean economy are similar. Providing utility-scale wind, solar, and even geothermal energy infrastructure will undoubtedly demand oil and gas expertise and ease the transition from traditional energy jobs to green jobs. Hydraulic Fracturing technology has increased in popularity within the oil and gas sectors as it allows drillers to increase access to petroleum-bearing rock formations deep underground. The newfound abundance and access to shale natural gas has also allowed the US to dramatically reduce its emissions over the last fifteen years. This already existing technology can also be used to improve permeability in geothermal reservoirs, just one example of how traditional energy skills can be easily transferred to the clean economy.
The resilience of this transformation will, however, depend upon the federal government’s ability to provide additional resources, funding, training programs, and relocation incentives for traditional energy workers. President Biden pledged ten million high-quality clean energy jobs for both coastal and inland communities, involving a $400 billion historic investment into energy, climate research, and innovation over the next decade. In tandem with this investment, will also be federal assistance in overhauling inefficient infrastructure and technologies for low-to-moderate-income households and communities.
The easy part was reentering – President Biden now faces a challenging path ahead as he must ultimately restore trust amongst the other signatories and the American people following President Trump’s withdrawal. As we approach the one-year mark of an unprecedented period in world history, the Biden administration’s willingness to engage the world on this global issue should prove itself to be a worthy investment. Americans are in dire need of a jumpstart to the economy and high-growth and high-quality projects in wind, solar, and energy efficiency could be the golden ticket that bolsters Middle-America and puts the U.S. on track to surpass China and become the global clean-energy superpower.
Against: Rejoin the Paris Accords, For What?
Nick Sammarco
Research Assistant
As part of the flurry of week one executive orders issued by President Biden, the United States official rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. The agreement, negotiated in 2015 and enacted by nearly 200 countries since then, tasked signers with implementing self-enforced emission reduction schemes to keep global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels. In June 2017, President Trump announced that the United States would leave the regime, and for good reason. Why should the United States be part of (or in the case of Biden, rejoin) an agreement that does little to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change and does much to hinder economic growth?
If the Biden Administration is serious – as it should be – about reducing emissions and slowing warming, it should leave the Paris Climate Accords in the same wastebasket in which other relics of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy lie. According to The Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific analysis that tracks government climate action compared to the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, America’s Paris commitments are “insufficient” with the agreement’s stated goal of containing global warming below two degrees Celsius.
Along with America, The Climate Action Tracker finds that 76% of the world’s largest emitters included in the Paris Accords have emissions goals that are insufficient to contain warming to below two degrees Celsius. The agreement depends on all countries following through on their commitments (which a significant number of countries are not). As the data shows, however, even if all countries hit their targets, the Paris Accords would fail to achieve their principal goal.
It’s easy to understand why countries are incentivized to set low bars. All government policy has a cost; the Paris Climate Accords are no exception. President Trump withdrew from the Paris Accords for several reasons, chief among them was the price of following through on the Obama-era emissions reduction plan (the same plan the Climate Action Tracker deemed insufficient). About 400,000 jobs, a loss in income of more than $20,000 per American family, and $2.5 trillion in GDP were on the chopping block if President Trump didn’t wisely pull the US out. In any international agreement, the costs must align with benefits. The benefits – or dearth of benefits – from the Paris Accords pale in comparison to the estimated costs. With the pandemic and years-long lockdowns already stretching American wallets thin, now is not the time for fruitless posturing.
In reality, rejoining the agreement is a mere symbolic gesture to those clamoring for action on climate change. Some may say that rejoining the Paris Accords sends an important signal to the world that President Biden and his new administration will take the threats of climate change seriously. I’m glad that President Biden takes climate change seriously, but the idea that rejoining the Paris Accords amounts to anything meaningful in the global climate change effort is as persuasive to me as the voice at the end of Lucky Charms commercials that claims rainbow marshmallows and sugar-coated oats are part of a balanced breakfast.
Newly inaugurated President Joe Biden knows he is in quite the bind. Though the majority of voters in November elected Biden to accomplish his self-imposed goals of uniting the country while pursuing a less volatile, more moderate politics, a significant portion of the Democratic Party’s base is dead set on seizing their rare political trifecta to pursue far-left policy the President and the American public have no appetite for. Perhaps President Biden hoped rejoining the Paris Accords would placate the radical element of the party. I think Biden is just as mistaken if that was his motivation for rejoining the counterproductive agreement as he would be if he earnestly believes the Paris Accords are a useful tool in combating climate change.
