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By David Henry

Source: Landscape News

Three days after the United States officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in a nail-biting race. The change in leadership will pave the way for the biggest shift in a generation in government efforts to protect the environment and conserve biodiversity, according to media reports.

Biden’s environmental and energy policy revamp includes a $2 trillion climate program, which aims to protect 30 percent of the U.S. lands and water by 2030. This “represents the largest shift in United States science-based biodiversity conservation policy since the Endangered Species Act” of 1973, said Scientific American. On 20 January, when Biden becomes president, he plans to send a letter to the United Nations indicating the world’s largest economy will rejoin the Paris Agreement, according to the New York Times. Such a move would not require ratification by the Senate, which may remain under Republican control.

Biden’s environmental package contains promises to permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to ban new oil and gas permits on public lands and waters, to set up targeted programs to enhance reforestation and to establish national parks and monuments that reflect America’s natural heritage. The president-elect plans to use executive orders to overturn controversial Trump-era deregulation efforts on environment protection and public health, according to the Washington Post.

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