Professor Richard Beardsworth and Professor Olaf Corry analyse Joe Biden's climate agenda
The article published in The Conversation is entitled "Climate change: Joe Biden could ride a wave of international momentum to break deadlock in US".
Professor Beardsworth, Professor of International Politics and Head of School, and Professor Corry, Professor of Global Security Challenges, explain that by 2050 the US aim to have zero net carbon emissions. The article states “Biden’s ability to implement such a transformative domestic agenda appears to be severely limited”, which suggests Biden’s climate plan is ambitious and there is scepticism about how successful its fulfilment will be. However, “if Biden can link action on climate to economic regeneration, jobs, environmental justice, and a proactive foreign policy with both China and Europe, he could yet fulfil both his domestic and international agendas” explain Professor Beardsworth and Professor Corry.
The article goes on to discuss the prospects that Biden could potentially utilise in global markets and with foreign alliances to achieve the aims set out in the climate plan. Though there are opportunities abroad, Biden is likely to still face hurdles from political opponents within the US, therefore “he would still need to actively make climate action attractive to the American people”. The article concludes that “Biden’s ultimate challenge is to get his domestic and international predicaments to play off each other so that he can act effectively on both”.
