Biden Administration Pushes for Multilateral Cooperation and Domestic Action to Combat Climate Change
On August 9, 2021, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report scientifically establishing that “[c]limate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe with human influence contributing to many observed changes in weather and climate extremes.” The Biden administration has emphasized that climate change threatens U.S. national security interests, and it worked to ramp up global ambition for governments’ commitments at the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow in November. COP26 prompted the announcement of a number of climate-related pledges and declarations, including the U.S.- and EU-led Global Methane Pledge, and it culminated in the Glasgow Climate Pact. The conference’s success in limiting global warming will depend on global leaders’ willingness to follow through on the commitments they made. The Biden administration has announced administrative regulations aimed at decreasing U.S. emissions of methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and has requested that the Senate advise and consent to ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The administration is also awaiting congressional passage of significant funding for Biden’s climate agenda, while moving ahead with executive actions focused on sustainability.