Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden said he would bring the United States back to the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, if he wins the election.
“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement,” Biden wrote this week. “And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it.”
The United States officially left the accord on Wednesday, becoming the only nation to do so. President Donald Trump said the agreement would harm American jobs and would be damaging to the U.S. economy.
“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 stated in 2017.
Former President Barack Obama joined the deal during the final months of his 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. “Over the past seven and a half 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.”
During the final stretch of his campaign, Biden faced criticism from Republicans over his final debate comments that he would “transition from oil … that’s a big statement.” He also suffered criticism after he made conflicting statements about fracking for natural gas. In 2019, during a Democratic primary debate, Biden said he would do away with fracking but later clarified his stance, saying he would not.
After the final debate, Biden’s campaign said he wouldn’t “transition from oil” but would instead end subsidies on oil production.
Neither Trump nor Biden have been declared winners of the presidential election as vote-counting is still ongoing.
On Wednesday evening, Biden, in a news conference, said his campaign believes he will be the winner. The former vice president did not declare himself the winner.
“When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winner,” he said. “Democracy is the heartbeat of this nation … [it’s been] the heartbeat of this nation for two centuries,” Biden added. “It is their will who will determine who will be the president of the United States.”
“Every indications show” that he will win the popular vote in the United States, Biden said in the conference. “Indeed, Senator [Kamala] Harris and I are on track to win more” votes than “any ticket” ever, he added.
From The Epoch Times
