Biden Reaffirms Pledge To Rejoin Paris Climate Agreement On First Day Of His Presidency

On the day that the U.S. officially withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, Joe Biden reaffirmed his pledge that he would have the U.S. rejoin it on day one of his presidency, if elected.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks one day after Americans voted in the presidential election, on November 04, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. | Getty Images
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks one day after Americans voted in the presidential election, on November 04, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. | Getty Images

On the same day the Trump administration officially dropped out of the Paris Climate Agreement—one day after voting concluded in the presidential election, as votes were still being tabulated—Democratic candidate Joe Biden reaffirmed his pledge to immediately have the U.S. rejoin it if he wins the presidency. 

Biden tweeted on Wednesday, “Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it.” 

Biden has already indicated that he would rejoin the Paris Agreement during his presidency. A section on his campaign’s website about his plans for clean energy and environmental justice says Biden will “Re-enter the Paris Agreement on day one of the Biden Administration and lead a major diplomatic push to raise the ambitions of countries’ climate targets.”

“Biden was there alongside President Obama to rally the world to get to Paris; and he will be prepared on day one of his presidency to take it to the next level,” the section reads.

In July, Biden unveiled a $2 trillion clean energy plan focused on addressing the threat of climate change and creating jobs for American workers.

News of the U.S. officially leaving the Paris Agreement came three years after President Trump first announced his decision to withdraw. The central goal of the agreement, which 197 other countries are a part of, is to “to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” When announcing his decision to withdraw, Trump claimed without offering real evidence, “the bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States."