Climate: the United States determined to meet its objectives, despite the setback at the Supreme Court

The United States is determined to meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, despite the recent negative Supreme Court ruling, Biden administration climate envoy John Kerry promised on Friday. .

“We are determined to achieve our goals.

We can achieve them, ”he said of these official commitments, the day after a decision by the very conservative American Supreme Court which severely limits the powers of the federal state in the fight against global warming.

“Of course, it would help us if we had a majority on the United States Supreme Court that really understood the seriousness of the situation and would be better able to try to help rather than somehow another, put a spoke in the wheel,” said the senior diplomat.

Objective of 50 to 52% less emissions by 2030

President Joe Biden, who returned to the Paris climate accord left by his predecessor Donald Trump, announced in April 2021 that the United States would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by by 2030, compared to 2005. Joe Biden submitted these new commitments to the UN in order to get closer to the objectives of the Paris agreement of 2015, where John Kerry was at the maneuver as head of diplomacy for Barack Barack Obama.

On Friday, China, the world's largest emitter, called for each country to stick to the commitments of the Paris agreement, a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy adding, about the United States, that "recite slogans n is not enough”.

Read alsoGlobal warming: how Biden puts the United States at the heart of the fight

John Kerry, who has worked with Beijing officials on the climate despite the rivalry between the two countries, said he was "not surprised by the message" from the Asian giant.

“We are going to show China precisely how we will get there,” added John Kerry.

The spokesman for the UN secretary-general said on Thursday that the Supreme Court's decision was a "step backwards" in the fight against climate change, "when we are already far behind in achieving the goals of the United Nations. Paris Agreement”.

On Thursday, the nation's highest court ruled that the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not enact blanket rules to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants, which produce nearly 20% of the electricity in the United States.

"Coal is the worst fuel in the world."

"I am convinced - and our lawyers are looking at this more closely - that this decision leaves enough leeway to do a lot of things that we must do" against climate change, however explained John Kerry.

“No one, neither bank nor private lender, is going to finance a new coal-fired power plant in the United States,” he insisted.

"Coal is the worst fuel in the world."

For the rest, "I think the president must think about all the possible options", he added, while some Democratic parliamentarians are calling on the president to declare a state of climate emergency.

New hydrocarbon exploitation permits issued

On Friday, however, the Biden administration paved the way for new hydrocarbon exploitation permits in the country.

Without a "rapid, radical and most often immediate" reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors, it will not be possible to limit global warming to +1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, nor even at +2°C, warned the UN climate experts (IPCC) in their report published in April.

Read alsoGlobal warming: more than three years to act, alarm the IPCC experts

The States have nevertheless committed themselves to it by signing the Paris agreement but they are not yet up to the challenge, while a warming of +1.1°C already makes “very vulnerable” half of humanity, hit by increasing heat waves, droughts, storms and floods.

"The times require aiming for the moon"

It is difficult for the United States to show leadership on climate around the world when the centrality of this issue is debated within the country itself, underlined Ruth Greenspan Bell, an expert on climate at the of the Woodrow Wilson think tank.

"The times require aiming for the moon, but it's difficult to aim for the moon when you're in a defensive position," she said.

Environmental advocates place little hope in an energy bill being debated in Congress, in particular because of the positions of a moderate Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, who defends his state of West Virginia, where many inhabitants make a living from the coal mines.