Climate change is one of the priorities in US President Joe Biden’s administration, having taken steps to combat the warming planet. However, the recent UN climate report has administration officials already warned of immediately taking action to combat global warming.
A new report released by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released this week. The report warned that the world is running out of time to keep global warming induced by humans down to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report also detailed various scenarios should countries all over the world do their part to lower carbon emissions and keep global warming down to 1.5 degrees compared to what will happen if nothing is done.
The report by the IPCC also comes as the Senate Democrats unveiled its $3.5 trillion proposal that would make investments in tackling climate change. Lawmakers hope that this budget reconciliation bill can be a step towards meeting Biden’s goal of cutting down greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent, similar to 2005 levels by 2030. Biden also previously said that his goal is to also get the US to net-zero emissions by 2050 while decarbonizing the electricity sector by 2035.
The Biden administration also announced Monday that $5 billion in funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency would help states and counties prepare for potential climate-related disasters. The funding will be directed towards grants for communities to reduce vulnerability to natural calamity-related incidents, along with additional grants for hazard mitigation and for flood mitigation grants.
In other news, Biden has imposed sanctions against Belarus in time for the one-year anniversary of the protests against the election of its authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The White House also cited the forced landing of a commercial European airline by Lukashenko to arrest an opposition journalist that was aboard the flight.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on one of the biggest state-owned companies, Belaruskali OAO, the Belarusian National Olympic Committee, and 15 other private companies that have ties to Lukashenko’s regime.
“It is the responsibility of all those who care about human rights, free and fair elections, and freedom of expression to stand against this oppression,” said Biden in a statement. Prior to the White House announcing sanctions, the UK has also announced measures that would target Belarusian state-owned companies.