America Is Back In Paris, With Emissions Reductions Work To Do

The United States officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement on Friday. The move puts the U.S. back at the table with nearly every other country on the planet working to cut climate pollution. The U.S. must take significant action, however, to repair the substantive and reputational damage caused during the Trump administration. To comply with the agreement, the U.S. must set a 2030 target for national greenhouse gas emission reductions, which the Biden administration is expected to do before its summit with international leaders on April 22.

The America Is All In coalition, launched Friday, also spotlighted an analysis demonstrating how action at all levels of government and the private sector can, together, reduce U.S. emissions by nearly 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. Some environmental groups, including the U.S. Climate Action Network, are calling for an even more ambitious target of 70% emissions reductions by 2030.

“I think it would be extremely difficult for the U.S. to show leadership if it can’t come up with something that is commensurate with the deep cuts in emissions that we need this decade to get on the road for net zero by 2050,” Rachel Kyte, a former U.N. special envoy for sustainable energy and the dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, told E&E News. (E&E $, Reuters, AP, CBS, CNN, The Hill, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, The Guardian, Politico; Subnational efforts: Washington Post $, NBC, NPR, Bloomberg $, Greentech Media; Commentary: Time, Anne Hidalgo and William Peduto op-ed, CNN, Alok Sharma op-ed, The Hill, Alejandro Pérez op-ed)