Government Role/Policies in Climate Change (U.S)
Bonnie Zheng
“Someday, our children, and our children’s children, will look at us in the eye and they’ll ask us, did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem and leave them a cleaner, safe, more stable world?” - President Barack Obama, 2013
Overview: President Obama’s administration have been taking action to combat climate change. By June 2013, President Obama outlined the Climate Action Plan in which it details actions to cut carbon pollution, help prepare for the impacts of climate change in the U.S, and continue to guide international efforts to address climate change globally.
Cutting Carbon Pollution
- Reducing Carbon Pollution from Power Plants
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the Clean Power Plan in 2014 to place a limit on carbon pollution caused from power plants by 30% by 2030 and cut smog production by over 25%. The plan lead to a total benefit of $55 billion to $93 billion per year in 2030.
- Accelerating Clean Energy Leadership
- Renewables on Public land: Before President Obama was in the office, there was no renewable projects on public area. However, since then the Department of the Interior has implanted 50 wind, solar, and geothermal renewable project. Altogether these projects formed 20,000 jobs and electricity to power 4.8 million homes.
- Expanding and Modernizing The Electric Grid: Plan to expand the electric grid to be connected to renewable sources.
- Staying on Cutting Edge: Innovations of new technologies are essential in the transition to a cleaner economy; therefore, President Obama made the Advanced Research Project Agency- Energy (ARPA-E) in 2009 to make and advance energy projects.
- Building a 21st Century Clean Energy Infrastructure
- Obama administration made the first-ever fuel economy standard for heavy-duty vehicles in model years 2014-2018. These standards are to lower carbon emission, lower our dependence on foreign oil, save over over 500 million barrels of oil, and $50 billion fuel cost for vehicle owners.
- Cutting Energy Waste in Homes, Businesses, and Factories
- Through the President’s Better Building Challenge, Obama’s administration have been partnering with private sectors to advance energy efficiency over different areas.
- Reducing Other Greenhouse Gase
- Under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP), EPA stated new rules in 2014 to propose alternatives to Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and limit the use of some applications that produce HPCs if alternatives are available. In addition, Strategy to Reduce Methane Emission is also released in 2014 to control the amount of methane emission from oil/gas systems, coal mining, agriculture, and landfills.
Preparing for the Impacts of Climate Change
- Assess the Impacts of Climate Change
- In 2014, Obama’s administration released the Third U.S National Climate Assessment (NCA) in which details all the information related to climate-change and its impact to inform people about climate preparedness.
- Support and Learn from Local Leaders
- In the Climate Action Plan, President Obama signed an Executive Order to make a Task Force dedicated to advise administrators on how they can respond to the impacts of climate change.
- Make Climate-Resilient Investments
- For example, U.S invested $1 billion dollar to the National Disaster Resilience Competition to help communities reconstruct from recent natural disaster and the Department of the Interior spent $10 million in the Technical Assistance Program and Federal-Tribal Climate Resilience Partnership.
- Provide Data and Tools to Support Climate Resilience
- For Example, the Obama Administration made a website, Climate Resilience Toolkit, to provide easy-to-use information and practices to help different communities increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.
- Reduce Risk of Droughts and Wildfires
- In 2013, the Obama Administration made the National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP) to help communities prepare for droughts and the impacts.
Leading International Efforts to Combat Global Climate Change
- Leading Public-Sector Financing Toward Cleaner Energy
- President Obama set an end to public financing for coal-fired power plants oversea with exceptions in some circumstances. This plan was followed by other countries including, the Nordic nations, UK, and Netherlands.
- Bilateral Cooperation with Major Economies
- President Obama and President Xi announced their countries goals to reach climate change targets such as lowering the emission of HFCs.
- Expanding Clean Energy Use and Cutting Energy Waste
- To make the transition to a cleaner economy, the Energy Department leads the Clean Energy Ministerial, which is a global forum to promote programs and policies to improve energy sustainability. In addition, U.S is involved in Summit of the Americas, G-20, APEC to improve global energy efficiency.
- Mobilizing Climate Finance and Promoting Global Climate Resilience
- In 2014, U.S contributed $3 billion dollar to Green CLimate Fund (GCF) to lower carbon pollution in developing countries.
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When you say the public understanding, who exactly is the public? I think you should go out and ask people from Spain and people from America about their understanding to actually get a feel for what the public understanding is. But, i am loving the background!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think this blog is great! I love the pictures, charts, and information provided by it. The fact that you guys used statistical data as evidence is very helpful not only in terms of using it as evidence, but it also helps the readers to understand the information provided in this blog. I also like how the blog is organized into three different sections, but I think if there were a section on climate change itself in terms the causes and effects of it, it would be helpful because not everyone understands what exactly climate change is.
ReplyDeleteFantastically organized but I agree with Katie. There could be a little paragraph about what climate change actually is. I really enjoyed learning about the efforts that were made to improve climate change.
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