WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Environment & Public Works and Foreign Relations committees, who led a delegation of 10 senators to the COP21 Paris Climate Conference in 2015, applauded the most recent executive orders signed by President Joe Biden that recognize the urgency of dealing with climate change and elevate science to its proper role as an important tool for setting policy.
“Today, President Biden built on the strong start made on Inauguration Day, taking executive action to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad while creating family-sustaining union jobs and an equitable clean energy future, building resilient infrastructure, and restoring federal scientific integrity. The orders include ambitious goals to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and put the United States on a path to a net-zero economy by 2050. President Biden’s Day One executive orders on climate and environmental justice included rejoining the Paris Agreement to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, as well as reversing President Trump’s numerous environmental rollbacks to protect public health.
“U.S. leadership played a critical role in bringing the international community together for the purpose of combatting climate change. I am pleased President Biden’s order centers climate considerations as an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security. The executive order affirms the U.S. will exercise its leadership to promote a significant increase in global ambition, building on the Paris Agreement roadmap.
“The order directs federal agencies to develop plans to increase the resilience of their facilities and operations to the impacts of climate change and to report on ways to enhance climate forecast capabilities. This will help facilitate public access to climate-related information and support state and local governments, communities, and businesses in carrying out adaptation actions. The order also ensures that each federal infrastructure investment reduces climate pollution.
“Rebuilding the U.S. scientific enterprise is essential for a bold, whole-of-government approach to address climate change and environmental justice to succeed. President Biden signed a presidential memorandum on scientific integrity to protect scientists from political interference. In addition, President Biden signed an executive order re-establishing the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. These actions will help fill in gaps in expertise at federal agencies that produce climate projections and public health policies and repair the Trump administration’s underfunding and denigration of science.”
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