Biden Rolls Out New ‘Ambitious’ Climate Goals Weeks Before Trump Returns To White House

The lame duck Biden administration is rolling out “ambitious” new emissions reduction targets ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The White House announced Thursday that it is now aiming for the entire American economy to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66% by 2035 relative to 2005 levels, and that these new “ambitious” targets will be submitted to the United Nations pursuant to the Paris climate accords. While the administration is touting the new goals as a demonstration of American “climate leadership,” the targets are non-binding and will likely be ignored by Trump, according to The New York Times.

Thursday’s announcement “aligns with President Biden’s target of a net zero greenhouse gas economy no later than 2050 and marks an ambitious capstone to President Biden’s climate legacy, focused on investment, innovation, creating millions of good-paying and union jobs, building the clean energy economy of the future, reducing costs for all Americans, advancing environmental justice, and improving the health and security of communities across America,” according to the White House.

Notably, the U.S. is behind on its existing emissions targets, with the country on pace to cut them by 22% by 2030 despite at least $1 trillion in climate spending from the Biden administration, according to BloombergNEF. The U.S. would need to reduce emissions by 50% come 2030 if the country is to be in line with the terms of the Paris agreement.

Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement during his first term, but the Biden administration reentered the deal almost immediately upon taking office in 2021. The president-elect is likely to drop out of the accords again in his second term, though it remains to be seen whether Trump will try to make America’s withdrawal more permanent.

The Biden administration is apparently well aware that the new targets are not likely to have any staying power given Trump’s impending return to the Oval Office, but officials are hoping that Thursday’s announcement inspires states to keep pursuing climate policies even if the Trump administration does not, according to the NYT.

The new emissions goals are the latest post-election move by the lame duck Biden administration to try to shore up its climate agenda and protect it from the incoming Trump administration, which will work to deregulate the energy sector and clawback cash from signature Biden climate programs. In the weeks since Nov. 5, the Biden administration has handed out $1.6 billion in “environmental justice” grants, sealed major taxpayer-funded loans for green energy companies, teed up California regulators to alter the national auto market and released a long-awaited analysis of the impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports that could get in the way of Trump’s push to unshackle such exports.