Biden sets 60 percent greenhouse gas reduction target

The Biden administration on Thursday upped America’s commitment to reducing planet-warming emissions under the Paris Climate Agreement weeks before President-elect Trump is set to take office.

The White House announced a new nationally determined contribution (NDC) of reducing U.S. emissions 61 percent to 66 percent from 2005 levels by 2035, after previously pledging to reduce them by half by 2030. The NDC also includes a commitment to cut methane, which remains in the atmosphere for less time than carbon dioxide but is more potent at warming the atmosphere, by 35 percent.

The incoming Trump administration is likely to discard the goal. The president-elect has falsely claimed human-caused climate change is a “hoax” and campaigned on ramping up fossil fuel production in a second term.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris agreement during his first term and is likely to do the same when he takes office in January.

However, the new targets could serve as a potential model for cities and states as they seek to chart their own course on climate with little federal support in the second Trump administration.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the most climate-focused members of the Senate Democratic caucus, praised the move in a statement and called it an opportunity for climate policy that outlasts any Trump rollbacks of Biden policies.

“[A] strong national climate commitment outlasts the term of any one president. This is a signpost that we will hopefully use in the not-to-distant-future to find our way back to the global negotiating table,” Markey said.

“Today, the United States shows the world what we will work to achieve over the next ten years, whether driven by leaders in Congress to subnational and local governments and actors," he added. "Climate change cannot wait for the right person to be in office—it will take every single one of us, across the globe, to fight the greatest challenge of our time."

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