Biden pledges to rejoin Paris Climate Agreement on day one of presidency

Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden vowed to lead the United States back into the Paris Climate Accord on the first day of his presidency should he win the election. 

“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement,” Biden said this week. “And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it.”

Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it. https://t.co/L8UJimS6v2

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020

On Wednesday, the U.S. officially became the only nation in the world to leave the international climate agreement, a target of President Trump’s ire from the early days of his administration. 

Trump, who has downplayed the dangers climate change poses to the world, promised to leave the accord which the U.S. initially joined during the final months of former President Obama’s administration. 

“One of the reasons I ran for this office was to make sure that America does its part to protect this planet for future generations,” Obama said at the time. “Over the past 7 1/2 years, we’ve transformed the United States into a global leader in the fight against climate change. But this is not a fight that any one country, no matter how powerful, can take alone.”

Trump, who campaigned on what he called “America First” policies on national security and trade, has characterized the agreement as expensive and unnecessary for the United States. 

“The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories and vastly diminished economic production,” Trump said in 2017.

Trump has claimed the U.S. has paid “billions” of dollars into the agreement, but a 2017 fact check found the country has pledged only $1 billion.

Biden’sBiden’s climate plan calls for a 100 percent clean-energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The former vice president has taken some criticism from Republicans following comments during the final presidential debate in which he stated he would seek to end fracking, a statement his campaign later attempted to clarify as pertaining to subsidies for oil companies. 

If Biden is to be elected and the U.S. re-joins the agreement, it would leave America out of the deal for less than four months. 

There has not yet been a declared winner in the presidential election as a number of key states are still counting votes.