https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-signs-historic-climate-bill-as-scientists-applaud/#
Several US agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), will see a significant influx of cash from a massive climate and tax bill that US President Joe Biden signed on 16 August. Scientists around the world welcome the legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, which pledges US$369 billion in climate investments over the next decade — while acknowledging that more work is needed to counter global warming.
The legislation would cut US greenhouse-gas emissions by about 30–40% below 2005 levels by 2030, scientists estimate, bringing the country closer to delivering on its pledge of a 50% reduction, which Biden made last year. And it signals to other nations that the United States, a major emitter that has historically pumped the largest share of greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere, is on board to address climate change, scientists say.
After former president Donald Trump took steps away from climate action, “it returns the US to a position of leadership”, says Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “It helps create a global climate for action.”
That’s because the 2015 Paris climate agreement — which aims to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels — works on the basis of ‘reciprocal action’, says Michael Pahle, an energy researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. That means that governments take the actions of other nations into account when setting their climate agendas.
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