President-elect Biden has nominated Janet Yellen to be the next U.S. Treasury secretary. Yellen has had a long career in government, previously serving as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. In addition, she is a co-founder of the Climate Leadership Council, of which WRI is also a founding member. Yellen would become the first woman to serve as U.S. Treasury secretary. Following is a statement from Dr. Andrew Steer, President & CEO, World Resources Institute.
Climate, Energy & Transport
President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled key members of his foreign policy and national security team. The nominees include Antony Blinken for Secretary of State; Alejandro Mayorkas for Secretary of Homeland Security; Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence; Linda Thomas-Greenfield for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Jake Sullivan for National Security Advisor; and John Kerry for Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Following is a statement from Andrew Steer, President & CEO, World Resources Institute.
To keep the window open to limit global warming to 1.5 C, countries need to accelerate transformation toward a net-zero emissions future across all sectors at a far faster pace than recent trends, according to a new report from World Resources Institute and ClimateWorks Foundation.
According to multiple media sources, Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris have been confirmed as the winners of the 2020 U.S. election. They received the most votes by a president ticket in U.S. history and were able to win several states that Donald Trump had won in 2016. The U.S. House of Representatives stayed majority Democrat. The outcome for the composition of the U.S. Senate is very close and currently undetermined.
Following is a statement from Dr. Andrew Steer, President & CEO, World Resources Institute.
Today the U.S. officially became the only country to abandon the Paris Agreement on climate change. The withdrawal comes a day after the U.S. election, the results of which are still unclear. If a U.S. administration sends a request to the United Nations to re-enter the accord, the country would again be party to the Paris Agreement after a period of 30 days. Following is a statement from Helen Mountford, Vice President, Climate & Economics, World Resources Institute.
During his first policy address to the Japan’s parliament today, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. He also mentioned that dealing with climate change is no longer a constraint on growth. Following is a statement from Helen Mountford, Vice President for Climate and Economics, World Resources Institute.
A new WRI co-authored paper published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications demonstrates how combining existing sub-national climate action with expanded national strategies in the United States will be critical to reach scientifically informed climate goals—and finds that such a comprehensive approach could reduce emissions up to 49% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels.
At Paris in 2015, countries agreed to come back to the table with more ambitious climate commitments (known as nationally determined contributions – NDCs) every five years, in order to keep the global temperature increase to 1.5 and build a more resilient and adaptive economy, together with investments compatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We are now in the midst of the first of these five-year cycles. Yet, as of the closing of the 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly this September, only 13 countries have...
The UN's 75th General Assembly last week offered a crucial moment for leaders to demonstrate global solidarity for a fairer, safer, stronger world amid the sweeping impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and a changing climate.
California's decision to require that all new passenger cars and trucks sold in the state to be emissions free by 2035 takes the fight against climate change to the next level.