The environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration includes a series of laws, regulations, and programs introduced by United States President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025. Many of the actions taken by the Biden administration reversed or attempted to reverse the first-term policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Biden's climate change policy focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, similar to the efforts taken by the Obama administration. Biden also promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. The main climate target of the Biden administration was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United States to net zero by 2050. A climate team was created to lead the effort.
On his first day in office, Biden began to make policy changes to protect the environment. He began by revising and strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and ordering several executive orders aimed at reviewing or undoing the environmental policies of the former administration; these policies included removal of some wildlife protections, the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and drilling for oil and gas on federal lands. In the same day, Biden had the United States rejoin the Paris Agreement. Biden has also supported climate justice and sustainable transportation.
Additionally, the Biden administration delivered a tax plan to Congress aiming to replace fossil fuel subsidies, with incentives for green energy. Its proposed budget includes a 30% increase in funding for clean energy, including in rural communities. Biden has also ordered the amount of energy produced from offshore wind turbines to be doubled by 2030. In April 2021, Biden hosted a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders. In November 2021, he advanced measures to reduce global warming with other world leaders at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). After four years of absence under the former president, the U.S. sought to regain its credibility. In November 2021, Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a major pillar of his environmental policy. By July 2022, the Biden administration had created a total of 54 environmental policies and proposed 43 more.
In August 2022, Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes the largest federal climate change investment in American history. The act has the capacity to create $3 trillion in climate investments in the 2022–2032 period and $11 trillion in overall infrastructure investments by 2050. According to some estimates, with the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal and state measures, the United States can reach its pledge in the Paris Agreement of 50%–52% greenhouse gas emissions reductions from 2005 by the year 2030.
Some environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, Earthjustice, and more, claim that President Biden took 322 actions to protect the environment—more than any other president in history.
Domestic policy In May 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality released a report describing how Biden's administration followed around 200 recommendations of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The full report has around 150 pages; it summarizes many of the steps taken by the administration in the environmental domain. Among others, it mentions: Unprecedented funding for energy efficiency implementation and weatherization Promoting transit-oriented development, walkability, cycling, and mixed-use development Promoting cooperation with Indigenous peoples of the Americas in environmental issues
Climate team personnel as of 2024 , the following officials composed Joe Biden's team for advancing his policy on climate change:
+ Name Office Background Gina McCarthy National Climate Advisor (January 2021–September 2022) EPA administrator, environmental advisor to five governors Ali Zaidi National Climate Advisor (September 2022–January 2025) Office of Management and Budget official, a lawyer focused on sustainability and climate change John Kerry Special Envoy for Climate Change (January 2021–March 2024) Secretary of State, helped to create the Paris Agreement and signed it as a representative of the United States John Podesta Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy (successor to the Special Envoy) Former White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, coordinated climate policy under President Obama Jennifer Granholm Energy Secretary Michigan governor, advocated the use of renewable energy, electric vehicles and job creation Deb Haaland Interior Secretary Member of Congress, co-sponsor of the Green New Deal Michael Regan Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Secretary of North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, environmental regulator Brenda Mallory Director of Council on Environmental Quality General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental lawyer Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary Also was Secretary of Agriculture under President Obama
Climate change mitigation policies
The administration's final target is reaching carbon neutrality in the United States by 2050. Biden sees climate change as an "existential threat", a view supported by most in the scientific community. During his inauguration, Biden said that "A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear." However, some activists have criticized the administration's policies for being insufficient to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Biden's climate plan changed significantly in 2020. In the beginning, it was criticized by many environmental groups as not being aggressive enough or even being detrimental contrary to prior stances on climate. Biden consulted with them, mainly through the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces, and included many of their recommendations in his plans, after which it received more support.
In 2021, the administration set a target of achieving zero emissions from the power sector by 2035. (Other sectors with considerable emissions are agriculture and construction.) Biden's climate plan includes a strong increase in green building; according to the plan, four million buildings in the United States should be upgraded, as well as 2 million weatherized in the next four years. This was expected to create one million green jobs, while the entire climate plan was expected to create 10 million green jobs. This number is smaller than other proposals like the Green New Deal, however, which claims to guarantee a job for every American.
Biden ordered the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines to prepare a report about the impacts of climate change. Biden also included John Kerry, the Climate Envoy, in the National Security Council. He then created the National Climate Task Force and the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. He said: "In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis and we can't wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes, we feel it, we know it in our bones." and "it's time to act". He also mentioned that climate action is linked with other aspects of his agenda such as health, jobs, and security.
As of August 2021, some calculations supposed that the infrastructure bill, the budget reconciliation bill, if passed, will cut emissions by 45% by 2030. Administrative orders from Biden and some states were expected to increase the reduction to 50%. In September of that year, the EPA planned to issue its final rule to reduce hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions by 85% within 15 years. (HFCs are greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more potent than .) In December, Biden signed an executive order directing the US government to cut its own emission by 65% by 2030 with different measures including energy efficiency, electric vehicles and renewable energy.
Social cost of carbon
On the first day of his presidency, Biden signed an order directing a return to the Obama-era policy of taking into account the social cost of carbon when implementing new regulations, a practice that the Trump administration had abandoned in 2017.
In February 2021, Biden raised the social cost of carbon in the US to $51 per tonne, replacing the lower Trump Administration's estimates with the prior estimates developed under Obama. This figure had an impact on EPA regulations but not on fuel prices. Carbon pricing was also already in operation in a few U.S. states. The $51 estimate was lower than the European Union's carbon price but higher than the Chinese carbon price. Additionally, the administration set the social cost of methane at $1,500 per tonne.
In March 2022, the court allowed the Biden administration to use the social cost of carbon, thus reversing a previous court ruling.
Climate legislation In the years 2021–2022, Biden promoted two bills that could reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% from the level of 2005: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Build Back Better Act. The Build Back Better Act faced strong opposition in the Senate and was not approved. However, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was approved by Congress and signed by Biden into law in November 2021. A group of experts at the REPEAT Project said that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act alone could make only a small reduction in emissions, but they didn't count the impact of measures regarding highways and public transport. Ultimately, the bill included the largest federal investment in public transit in history. It also included spending of $105 billion in public transportation while giving $110 billion to fixing roads and bridges, including measures for climate change mitigation, such as access for cyclists and pedestrians.
In August 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment by the U.S. federal government in history, which included over $391 billion to reduce carbon emissions. The bill, passing by a 51–50 vote in the Senate, explicitly defined carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act to make the Act's EPA enforcement provisions harder to challenge in court. With this law, and additional federal and state measures, the U.S. could start to fulfill its pledge in the Paris Agreement: 50% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by the year 2030.
In 2024, the administration issued new rules which could reduce emissions by over 1 billion tonnes. Among others, coal plants for operating after 2039 must use carbon capture and storage technology.
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
Biden's infrastructure plan was a major pillar in his climate policy. In the beginning, Biden intended to include all his climate and infrastructure policies in one bill, including $3trillion investments, with a large influence specifically on the greenhouse gas emissions of the United States. The plan, according to Biden's administration, was intended to help rebuild the American economy and create millions of jobs; the Biden administration often claimed that economic and climate issues are linked.