Consider history here. In the almost 30-year history of international climate negotiations, the United States has been more of a problem for the rest of the world than we are the leader we should be.
Then, from the beginning of 2021, it seemed that we would actually comply with the Paris Agreement after all, but that was not the case. The past year and a half has been a painful roller coaster ride for those of us who care about the future of humanity and other species on Earth, and embrace global scientific consensus about how climate change threatens us. It was something like
When Democrats narrowly won both the president and the House of Representatives in 2021, there was a period of hope that the “Build Back Better” bill would pass. This represents a major victory for the climate movement and addresses many other social justice goals. But after a long period of inexplicable dithering, Manchin pulled the carpet out from under his BBB and seemed hopeless for any meaningful climate law.
This is the real deal.
There has never been a climate law passed in the United States that comes close to this substantive. These emissions reductions are not only really important in themselves, they show that they are politically possible. This means that enough people care about climate issues and that they can be addressed by the political system. And they allow us to look to other countries when we ask them to do their part as well.
Politically, the IRA works to combat climate change primarily through investment rather than regulation and taxes. It gives people and businesses money (some directly, some through tax breaks) to spend on electric vehicles, heat pumps, wind power, solar power, and many other emission reduction measures.
It will stimulate growth and good jobs in the private sector. Further emissions reductions are possible as technology improves more rapidly than other methods. The industry that emerges from it may gain political power comparable to the fossil fuel industry, creating an offsetting force. (People can dream.)
There has been a great deal of focus on Manchin for obvious reasons, but this must be said: All Republicans who voted against the IRA – they are all of them – should be deeply ashamed of themselves. is.
No, the real change is that the Democrats, who for years have been unwilling or unable to do much about climate change, are finally putting it on the top of their agenda and making historic progress against a difficult possibility. It is to gather the will to pass laws. .
This is not normal for 1 microsecond. In my opinion, the youth climate movement, along with its older allies, should take a large part of the credit for building pressure and bringing the issue to the forefront of people’s minds. Let me thank my colleagues, the hardworking scientists, who have spent decades conducting research, writing papers, and summarizing them in IPCC reports and national climate assessments, leading to increasingly disastrous I have clarified the facts.)
But at a time when the twin slow-moving catastrophes of U.S. politics and the global climate crisis are making it so painful for many of us to read the news every day, take a moment and think about something. It’s important to celebrate when good things happen. It really is.President Biden and the team, and even Joe Manchin, who for months was reluctant to support such a bill, and everyone else who pushed it to this point, well done
Source: www.cnn.com
