The United States officially has a new goal for fighting climate change over the next decade. President Biden announced Thursday that America would aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. That’s one of the more aggressive near-term targets among wealthy industrialized nations, although the cuts are arguably not quite as large as what the European Union and Britain have already promised. In the European Union and Britain, there’s a broader political consensus around climate policy that doesn’t change too drastically when different parties take power. But in nations like Australia, Canada or especially the United States, rival political parties often have sharply divergent views on how quickly they should cut emissions — or even whether it’s desirable to cut emissions at all.
By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich. New York Times. April 22, 2021.
