Before being Inaugurated, Candidate and President-Elect Biden ran on a platform made of 4 separate issues: Covid, racial equity, economy, and climate change. But his campaign seemed to put the most pressure on their biggest issue, that being climate change. On the first day in office, Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline, a deal made with Canada to transfer oil across hundreds of miles which had leaked over 100,000 barrels worth of oil last year alone. 

On January 27th, Biden focused 3 executive orders on the issue, while announcing some plans for the issue. The President began steps towards his goal of a 100% carbon-free electric grid by 2035, with help of his Buy American executive order that Monday, a step followed by an announcement by General Motors, hoping they will make all-electric cars by 2035. ¨We’re going to harness the purchasing power of the federal government to buy clean, zero-emission vehicles that are made and sourced by union workers right here in America.¨ This solidifies his ambitious 18,600,00 job creation plan in his Build Back Better plan. This connects to Biden’s announcement that he does not plan to ban Fracking, to keep and strengthen union jobs, as well as standards.

His executive orders consisted of 3 main aspects: establishing the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy (led by fmr. EPA Director Gina McCarthy), centers climate change in national security and foreign policy decisions, and assists those at home affected the most by climate change. 

While President Biden still has many bold policies and promises in the coming years, opposition from House and Senate Republicans vocalizes almost daily. But after over 5,000+ acres of forest were burnt in California last year alone, the push by the Democrats has a window of opportunity. 

This Earth Day, Biden will host world leaders in a Climate Change Summit, the official U.S. return to climate talks. This is a big turnaround from President Trump, who left the Paris Climate Accords and skipped the G20 meeting on Coronavirus to golf, his 298th and final game in his four years in office..