The Biden-Harris Administration unveiled America’s new greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments as part of its contribution to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to keep global warming significantly below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F). The United States, which announced it would rejoin the Paris Agreement on President Biden's first day in office, has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. "The Biden-Harris Administration means business,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette, welcoming the news. “Meeting this new goal will make a significant contribution to the global fight against climate change. It is much more ambitious than America's initial goal to cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025. Other countries, including China, Britain, and the members of the European Union, have also raised their ambitions in the runup to the next U.N. climate summit this year. I am more optimistic than I have been in a long time.

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute's executive director, Daniel Bresette, welcomed President Joe Biden's executive order marking the return of the United States to the Paris Agreement. It was one of Biden's first actions as president following his inauguration today.

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EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette: “The United States formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement today, the only nation—out of 196—to do so. Climate change is real and we are already feeling the effects of it across the United States. The longer we wait to get serious about climate change, the harder, more disruptive, and costlier it will be to curb temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. States and cities are doing their best to keep up, but we need the federal government to be part of the effort. We should be leading, but instead we are retreating.”

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) welcomes today's release of a staff report by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The Committee, formed in January 2019 at the start of the 116th Congress, was charged with making ambitious climate policy recommendations to Congress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent and destructive extreme weather.

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“Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced the American Energy Innovation Act (S. 2657) this week, and it’s a big deal,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette. “But it’s missing a critical component: building energy code provisions. As the Senate moves ahead with energy legislation this week, its first vote should be to restore the missing building energy codes provisions, which are our best chance to realize significant climate benefits this year.”

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“The Trump Administration unfortunately never misses an opportunity to take a wrong turn on climate action,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette. “The 2021 budget proposal released today could—and should—provide a path to significantly reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, but instead it does the exact opposite.”

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) regrets the limited decisions reached at the U.N. climate negotiations in Madrid. Representatives from almost 200 nations met at the 25th Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) to address issues left undecided in the Paris Agreement Rulebook, which was developed at last year’s meeting in Poland. The negotiations in Madrid centered on devising a framework for international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

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“The U.N. report’s findings are bleak,” said EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette. “The United States and other countries are failing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, which means that we need to make even deeper and faster cuts if we want to curb climate change. We need to step up our commitments, and do so now. There are policy options available to us today that would have an immediate impact. In fact, we have just laid out an achievable set of policy recommendations to the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) today submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis an extensive set of policy recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.

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The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)’s Executive Director, Daniel Bresette, testified before Congress on the importance of energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create a clean energy economy, promote climate adaptation and resilience, and save Americans money.

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