Climate Change: Climate Change as a National Security and Foreign Policy Priority: Opportunities and Challenges for the Next Administration

Dec 4, 2020 | Mayesha Alam, Just Security
View Original

Addressing climate change is a central pillar of President-Elect Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. Signaling his commitment to the issue, Biden named former Secretary of State John Kerry to be the first-ever special presidential envoy for climate. The president-elect has also pledged to rejoin the 2015 Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on day one of his administration. Doing so will be an important first step toward strengthening U.S. leadership on climate change, especially after the lack of international cooperation during the Trump administration. But it must be accompanied by sustained and systematic engagement on a range of issues that extend beyond the environmental dimensions of lowering carbon emissions, improving air quality, replenishing forests, and protecting oceans.