FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

President Joe Biden has put the climate crisis front and center as many as the other crises that affect our communities today, especially the most vulnerable who bear a disproportionate brunt. 

As we face four overlapping and compounding crises – the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis – the Biden-Harris administration must focus on policies to address these by investing in a transition to a clean renewable energy economy, striving for environmental justice, and cutting pollution disrupting our climate. 

The CLEO Institute welcomes this heightened level of urgency these crises have deserved for so long. 

2020 was a year of no precedent—a year of many broken records, including many temperature ones. Cataclysmic wildfires, devastating hurricanes, and other climate-fueled disasters have impacted millions of Americans’ lives and well-being. 

“President Biden’s Executive Orders today show a clear agenda guided by science and rooted in facts. Reverting Trump’s environmental rollbacks and rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement is essential to help our nation recover. It is an opportunity to build back better, pollution-free, and to create a more just and sustainable future for all,” said CLEO Institute’s Executive Director, Yoca Arditi-Rocha.

Today is a new beginning—a great start. But, let us not forget these crises deserve laser focus mobilization, drive, and will. We have a sunset opportunity to create millions of jobs and address our society’s systemic inequities while restoring a safe climate. Thus, The CLEO Institute calls on President Biden and his administration to not only rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement today but to increase the ambition of our Nationally Determined Contributions to the levels the climate emergency deserves. 

It is time to act full speed ahead.

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Media Contact:  Ian Quartin, Iquartin@CLEOInstitute.org