(Image credit – Adam Schultz / The White House)
Four months into his administration, President Biden’s approach to climate change is beginning to cohere around two executive orders he issued his first week in office.
Signed on Inauguration Day, the first order set an urgent tone through high-priority moves, such as rejoining the Paris climate agreement, initiating an update of government benchmarks for the social cost of greenhouse gases, and reversing a number of Trump administration actions on environmental policy.
The second order, issued Jan. 27, established an array of policymaking mechanisms and outlined an agenda on matters such as climate resilience, environmental justice, and climate-related economic opportunities, with many action items due within 60, 90, and 120 days.
About the Show
Voted “Favorite Political Podcast” by Apple Podcasts listeners. Stephen Colbert says, “Everybody should listen to the Slate Political Gabfest.” The Gabfest is hosted by Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz. Listen for the debates, stay for the cocktail chatter.All episodes Hosts
David Plotz is a host of the Slate Political Gabfest and the CEO of City Cast.
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, the author of
Dear President Biden,
We are a group of human rights, reproductive rights, reproductive justice, environmental justice, maternal and child health, health care professional organizations, medical societies, and other advocates writing with a spirit of energized support for your January Executive Order (EO) on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad[1] and for your commitment to racial justice and environmental justice in addressing the climate crisis in the United States.
April 20, 2021
Pregnant People, Infants, Children Particularly Vulnerable
We are also writing to emphasize that addressing the climate crisis appropriately includes considering how heat, wildfires, floods, and other impacts stand to worsen the maternal health crisis that is dominated by unjust racial disparities, widening further the shocking gap in this country between who has a healthy pregnancy and baby and who does not.
UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
Sec. 101
This section states the policy that climate considerations will be an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Foreign Policy
Sec. 102
- Announces the U.S. will host a Leaders’ Climate Summit, contribute to the United Nations COP26, and reconvene the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate
- Climate considerations will be prioritized in international forums (i.e., G7 and G20)
- Directs the development of the U.S. contribution under the Paris Agreement in advance of the Leaders’ Climate Summit
- Directs the development of a climate finance plan to assist developing countries to reduce emissions