Biden-Harris victory may lead US back to Paris climate pact: Experts

As both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are strong advocates of climate and environmental justice, experts believe that if this combination wins forthcoming US presidential election, the world might well see Washington re-entering the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement from which incumbent President Donald Trump has withdrawn, writes senior journalist Aroonim Bhuyan.

New Delhi: If the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris combination wins this year’s US presidential election, the world might well see Washington re-entering the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement from which incumbent President Donald Trump has withdrawn, experts say.

Both Biden and Harris are strong advocates of climate and environmental justice and may re-enter the climate pact for which Indian played a key role.

Harris, picked by Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden as his running mate and who is US Senator from California, introduced the Climate Equity Act (CEA) along with US Representative from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this month.

“We must hold the United States government accountable for ensuring that frontline communities are at the heart of the decision-making process whenever it considers a policy, regulation, or rule with a climate or environmental nexus - which could broadly include direct policies to address the environment and climate change, but also transportation, housing, infrastructure, jobs, workforce development, and more,” the CEA draft statement states.

This is in direct contradiction to US President Donald Trump’s decision in 2017 to pull out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers”, or form a new agreement.

While withdrawing from the agreement, Trump stated that the Paris accord would undermine the US economy, and put his country at a “permanent disadvantage”. He also stated that the withdrawal would be in accordance with his America First policy.

Under the landmark, Paris Climate Agreement signed following the Conference of Parties (CoP) in 2015, from 2020 onward, a minimum flow of $100 billion annually must be ensured from the developed world to support the developing countries to meet their climate commitments or as planned by their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

According to the agreement, the global temperature increase will be kept below 2 degrees Celsius and countries will pursue efforts to keep the rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Under the agreement, India has made three key commitments: ensuring that at least 40 per cent of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil sources by 2030; ensuring reduction of greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and it will create an additional ‘carbon sink’ of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

During the course of the CoP in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with then French President Francoise Holland, also launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to address their special energy needs and provide a platform to collaborate on dealing with the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.

ISA is open to all 121 prospective member countries falling between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The headquarter of the ISA is located at Gurugram, India, and New Delhi has committed to provide support of Rs 125 crore to the alliance for creating a corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over five years from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

Though India’s efforts to increase its solar power generation was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, still its installed capacity reached over 35 GW as of June 30, 2020.

Now, with Harris introducing the CEA, observers are of the view that she might be leading the US back to rejoining the Paris pact if Biden wins the election which will serve as good news for New Delhi.

“It’s definitely a good forward move for climate diplomacy,” Climate Home News quoted Niklas Hohne, head of the New Climate Institute scientific think-tank, as saying following Biden’s pick of Harris as his running mate.

A Biden-Harris administration would be “like day and night in relation to climate policy and the Paris Agreement”, Hohne said.

Agrees Lydia Powell, Distinguished Fellow and Head, Centre for Resources Management in the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Powell recalled that Biden himself has issued statements on where the US should stand on fighting climate change which are radically opposite to Trump’s policy.

In his campaign statement, Biden has said that he knows how the US should stand with its allies, “stand up to adversaries and level with any world leader about what must be done”.

“He will not only recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change – he will go much further than that,” the Biden campaign website states.

Powell, however, pointed out that even the Democrats would not be completely against fossil fuels as this involves local jobs in the US.

“But the world will shift to clean fuels. That is the reality,” she said.

“They (the US if the Biden-Harris combination wins) will come back to the Paris deal for sure. It is almost certain.”

Harris’s CEA seeks accountability and equity impacts in federal climate and environmental action with frontline leaders from the most impacted communities having a seat at the table in formulating the Act itself.

“Before its formal introduction this fall, advocates from frontline communities and their allies will have an opportunity to provide public feedback on this draft legislation to ensure that together we build the strongest policy possible,” the CEA draft statement says.

Harris, the first person of Indian and African origin to be nominated for the US vice presidency, has emphasised on climate and environmental justice throughout her career. As San Francisco District Attorney, she established an environmental justice unit to help the city’s most vulnerable communities.

India will be keenly watching US actions on the Paris deal if Biden gets into the White House. According to the latest Financial Times US poll tracker based on Real Clear Politics, Biden will win 298 of the electoral college votes while Trump will get only 119. A candidate needs to win 270 such votes to win the presidency.