The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to report overwhelming evidence that fossil-fueled global warming is increasing at faster rates than earlier predicted. Without quickly phasing out fossil fuels, the United States will fall far from its 2030 emission goals and drag the world deeper into a state of climate emergency.
But the Biden Administration has yet to use his full authority under existing law to stop approving new fossil fuel leases, exports and infrastructure and declare a climate emergency to rapidly build out renewables and protect vulnerable communities Troublingly, Biden and the United Nations also continue to sell communities false “solutions” like Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS – a dangerous delay tactic championed by the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to continue business-as-usual while taking resources away from the needed transition to clean, cheaper renewable energy.
CCS and other false solutions allow the fossil fuel industry to keep profiting off the destruction of our ecosystems and fail to address our crisis at its root: continued production of fossil fuels and other dirty energy industries that poison communities and fuel rapidly changing weather patterns leave Black, Indigenous, communities of the global majority and poor communities devastated from climate chaos.
With a stroke of a pen, President Biden can deploy his executive powers to weaken the geopolitical power of fossil fuels, address the climate emergency, and prevent further mass suffering. Using the Defense Production Act, he can quickly and equitably scale up renewable energy manufacturing. Instead, he has called for maximizing fossil fuel production and doubled down on false solutions in announcing a deal aimed at ramping up fracked gas (LNG) exports to Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He can and must reverse course and take bold leadership to end the era of fossil fuels that science and justice demand.
Fossil fuel pollution and climate disasters are already disrupting millions of lives. We deserve a world beyond fossil fuels: a world in which workers’ rights, community health, and our shared climate come before corporate profits. That’s why we — hundreds of groups representing millions of people across the country fighting for climate, racial, and economic justice — are coming together to ensure Biden becomes the climate president he promised to be.
