On October 28th, 2021, U.S president Biden announced the ‘Build Back Better Act’ which primarily focuses on universal childcare, affordable healthcare, tax deduction and climate change. The act proposed the largest effort to combat climate change in American history with around $500 billion dollars in total ($55 billion per year). The plan is to provide clean energy tax credits on electric cars, clean energy usage, solar panels, wind turbine blades and etc. It also provides resources to farmers, ranchers and forestland owners to help to reduce CO2 emissions. As Biden called it in a press conference: “The Build Back Better Act will be a once-in-a-generation investment in our people”.

However, the Green Party of the United States criticized that Biden’s plan of combating climate change is still highly underfunded. Thirty billion per year on climate change only amounts to 1/25th of the U.S.military budget. The green party called for a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and wants the president to formally declare a climate emergency. Furthermore, the Green Party has also asked for Congress to fund a $2.7 trillion per year climate action plan instead of Biden’s Build Back Better plan.

The COP26 summit ended on 12th November in Glasgow. Although, many media coverages called it the “Last Chance COP”, many are disappointed by the results. The Climate Justice Alliance said the result of the COP26 showed “an utter disregard of the science and equity, false ambition and disdain for justice, and a license to pollute with NetZero and carbon markets”.

The U.S Green Party National Co-Chair Chris Stella also stated “The world’s political leaders in Glasgow paid lip service to the need for effective climate action while working behind closed doors to protect the profits of fossil fuel companies and their own campaign contributions”.

Chris further criticized Biden’s climate action: “Led by President Biden, the industrial polluters most responsible for the climate crisis continued to refuse to accept their responsibility for climate reparations to the countries most damaged by burning fossil fuels”.

The Green Party of the United States proposed their own plan on climate change. The party demands a short-term mandatory climate action plan with goals and targets, a cut on U.S military greenhouses gas emissions (Currently accounts for 6% emissions worldwide), an energy system that incorporates public ownership and democratic control and an immediate declaration of a climate emergency by the president.

Bailike Ma

Bailike (Edward) is an environmental science graduate from U of T. He participated in many sustainability-related projects at the university and helped to organize a youth climate conference in China. He can speak 3 languages (Mandarin, English, German) and travelled a bit around the world by himself. He is passionate about nature, art, education and media.

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