Biden: No change in America’s clean energy development before Trump’s presidency | Weather News

United States President Joe Biden witnessed the devastating effects of the drought as he became the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon rainforest, declaring that no one can reverse “America’s ongoing clean energy revolution”.

His comments come as the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is poised to scale back efforts to combat climate change.

The vast Amazon region, roughly the size of Australia, stores the world’s largest carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change. But development is rapidly destroying the world’s largest rainforest, and rivers are burning.

On Sunday, Biden said the fight against climate change has been a clear focus of his presidency. He pushed for clean air, water and energy, including legislation that marked the largest federal investment in history to fight global warming.

But he is about to hand over the country to Republican Trump, who is more likely to prioritize Amazon or anything related to climate change, labeling it a “hoax”.

Trump has vowed to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a global agreement to curb the threat of severe climate change, and said he will withdraw unused funds from energy conservation legislation.

“It’s true, some may want to deny or delay the clean energy revolution happening in America,” Biden said from a platform set on a sandy forest floor, surrounded by giant tropical ferns. “But no one, no one can reverse it, no one – not when most people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits.”

He said the question now is, “Which government will block the way and which one will seize this great opportunity?”

‘The heart and soul of the world’

Biden’s trip comes as the United Nations climate conference is underway in Azerbaijan. Brazil, which will host the summit next year, holds nearly two-thirds of the Amazon’s territory.

During the helicopter tour, Biden saw massive erosion, shipwrecks in one of the Amazon River’s main waterways, and fire damage. He also passed through a wildlife refuge for endangered species of monkeys and birds and the vast waters where the Negro River flows into the Amazon.

He was joined by Carlos Nobre, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and expert on how climate change is harming the Amazon.

Biden met with indigenous leaders and visited a museum at the gateway to the Amazon where indigenous women waved maracas as part of a welcoming ceremony. He then signed an American proclamation designating November 17 as World Conservation Day.

The US president leans on the image of his trip, saying that the Amazon may be “the lungs of the world”, but “in my opinion, our forest and the wonders of the world are the heart and soul of the world. They unite us. They inspire us to make us proud of our countries and our heritage”.

The Amazon is home to Indigenous communities and ten percent of the Earth’s biodiversity. Scientists say that its destruction is causing a great disaster in the world.

During his brief speech in the forest, Biden wanted to highlight his commitment to preserving the region. He said the US is on track to reach $11bn in international climate spending by 2024, a six-fold increase from when he took office.

Poor countries fighting sea level rise and other effects of climate change say the US and other rich countries have not kept their pledges to help.

“The fight to protect our planet is humanity’s fight,” Biden said.

The Biden administration announced plans last year for a $500m donation to the Amazon Fund, the world’s most important collaborative effort to save the rainforest, largely funded by Norway.

The US said it had already provided $50m as part of that commitment, and the White House announced another $50m on Sunday.

New initiatives

Biden’s trip was important, but “we can’t expect concrete results from this visit,” said Suely Araújo, former head of Brazil’s environmental protection organization and public policy coordinator for the nonprofit Climate Observatory.

He doubts “one cent” will go to the Amazon Fund if Trump is in the White House.

The Biden administration has unveiled a series of new initiatives aimed at strengthening the Amazon and curbing the impact of climate change.

That includes the launch of a financial alliance that aims to stimulate at least $10bn in public and private investment for land restoration and green economy projects by 2030 and a $37.5m loan to support large-scale planting of native tree species. degraded grasslands in Brazil.

The Amazon has been suffering under two years of historic drought that has dried up waterways, isolated thousands of riverine communities and hindered the ability of river dwellers to fish. It has opened up wildfires that have burned an area larger than Switzerland and choked cities near and far with smoke.

When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office last year, he marked a shift in environmental policy from his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro prioritized the expansion of agribusiness over forest protection and weakened environmental agencies, causing deforestation to rise to a 15-year high.

Lula has promised “no deforestation” by 2030, although her term expires in 2026. Forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 30.6 percent in the 12 months to July from a year earlier, making deforestation the lowest level in nine years, official data released. last week he said.

In that 12-month period, the Amazon lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles). But that data fails to capture the increase in vandalism this year, which will only be included in next year’s reading.

Despite success in stopping deforestation in the Amazon, Lula’s government has been criticized by environmentalists for supporting projects that could harm the region, such as the construction of a highway that crosses an old area and could encourage deforestation, oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon. River and railway construction to transport silt in the Amazonian ports.

While Biden was the first president to sit in the Amazon, former President Theodore Roosevelt traveled to the region with the help of the American Museum of Natural History following his loss to Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Roosevelt, joined by his son and environmentalists, traveled approximately 24,140 kilometers (15,000 miles). The former president contracted malaria and suffered a severe leg injury after a boating accident.

Biden is making the Amazon visit part of a six-day trip to South America, the first on the continent of his presidency. He is from Lima, Peru, where he participated in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

After stopping in Manaus, he is heading to Rio de Janeiro for this year’s Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit.