Biden puts U.S. back into fight to slow global warming

Republican senators are expected to introduce legislation that would require Biden to submit the Paris plan to the Senate for ratification. It's not clear whether the narrowly divided Senate would have the two-thirds votes needed to ratify the agreement, which was never approved by Congress.

Supporters say congressional approval is not needed. Most of the pollution-reduction goals set by the agreement are voluntary.

The climate deal is based on each nation setting a goal for cutting carbon pollution by 2030. Other countries submitted theirs by last month. The U.S did not. Saier said America just needs to submit its goal some time before November climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland.

A longtime international goal, included in the Paris accord with an even more stringent target, is to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees (2.2 degrees Celsius) since that time.

As of 2020, U.S. emissions were 24% below 2005 levels, but that reflected the extraordinary economic slowdown stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, energy and climate director for the Breakthrough Institute.

There are two big areas where climate policy deals with day-to-day American life. One is electricity generation, and the other is transportation.

Market forces have made wind and solar cheaper than dirtier coal, fueling a quiet transformation toward cleaner fuels, and that's expected to continue so that eventually nearly all of the nation's power will be low or zero carbon, Larsen and other experts say.

What happens to cars, trucks and buses will be far more noticeable. Several experts foresee the majority of new cars purchased in 2030 being electric.

(Story includes material sourced from AP.)