U.S. rejoins Paris climate agreement

The Biden administration is aiming to put the United States on track to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The United States rejoined the Paris climate accord on Friday as President Joe Biden seeks to once again put his country at the forefront of global efforts to tackle climate change.

"This strengthens global action", Guterres said.

Officially, Donald Trump's removal of the nation from the worldwide global climate pact stood for only 107 days, as part of his withdrawal from global allegiances in general and his often-stated but false view that global warming was a mistaken take by the world's scientists.

The U.S. return to the Paris agreement became official Friday, nearly a month after Biden told the United Nations that America wants back in.

Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office reversing the pullout ordered by Trump. The Trump administration had announced its withdrawal from the Paris accord in 2019, but it did not become effective until November 4 2020, the day after the election, because of provisions in the agreement.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his inaugural address in Washington on January 20, 2021.

On Thursday, White House adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said the extreme winter weather conditions in Texas and many other states across the central and southern United States this week are a reminder that climate change is real. She was one of the leading forces in hammering out the 2015 mostly voluntary agreement in which nations set their own goals to reduce greenhouse gases.

Co-author Romain Weikmans, of Belgium's Universite Libre de Bruxelles, said other changes for 2025 could include setting separate goals to fund climate adaptation or to channel more money to the poorest nations and threatened small-island states.

Trump had criticized the accord on the grounds it would impose "draconian financial and economic burdens" on American businesses, and said it was "very unfair" to the United States whereas China would be allowed to increase its emissions for years to come and build many coal plants.

Despite the former administration's numerous rollbacks of environmental regulations, many American cities, states and companies have vowed to drastically reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the coming years. "It's not about how many days". Today's development is deeply symbolic for the rest of the world even as political leaders across the globe hope that America rises to the occasion and fulfill its climate ambitions.

AFPHopes are high that Biden's government will make up for lost time after USA climate envoy John Kerry promised in January his country would "make good" on its climate finance promise.

Biden has put climate change at the center of United States foreign policy and national security considerations.

"Addressing the real threats from climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our domestic and foreign policy priorities", Blinken said.

Those measures will form the backbone of their next emissions reduction goal to be announced before a global climate leaders summit Mr Biden will host on April 22. "The Biden administration will set unworkable targets for the United States while China and Russian Federation can continue with business as usual". The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since that time.

Scientists have said that goal is in line with what is needed, while also stressing that global emissions need to drop by half by 2030 to prevent the most devastating impacts of global warming.