President Joe Biden sets new US climate target just weeks before Donald Trump takes office

Published

2 months ago

December 19, 2024

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President Joe Biden has set fresh climate targets for the United States before climate sceptic Donald Trump takes office in January.

Today the outgoing president has unveiled a new goal to slash US emissions of greenhouse gases by 61% from 2005 levels by 2035.

The 10-year plan should generate “more good-paying jobs, more affordable energy, cleaner air, cleaner water, healthier environments for everyone”, President Biden said.

“I’m proud that my administration is carrying out the boldest climate agenda in American history,” he added, citing his Inflation Reduction Act that poured hundreds of billions of dollars into green industries.

In reality, Donald Trump is expected to undo many green policies intended to tackle climate change when he takes office on 20 January.

But virtually every country in the world is bound by the Paris climate agreement (Mr Trump pulled the US out of the deal in his first term) to publish a new 2035 climate goal by February next year, along with a plan to reach it, known as an NDC (nationally determined contribution).

Most countries – apart from a handful including the UK – are yet to publish their NDCs.

The Biden administration was keen to drive through the US plan before Mr Trump takes office.

President-elect Trump questions well-established climate science and has previously called climate change a “hoax”, though he was less vocal about it this year.

He is expected to ignore climate goals and again pull the US out of the landmark Paris treaty, which President Biden ensured the US rejoined at the start of his term.

New target intended as a ‘North Star’

The new target is not legally binding, but President Biden’s team said it would guide states, businesses and organisations continuing with climate action during Mr Trump’s second term.

US climate envoy John Podesta said: “American climate leadership is determined by so much more than whoever sits in the Oval Office”.

He pointed to the fact that during the last Trump presidency, governments, businesses and investors formed the America Is Still In coalition to continue with climate action. Today the group has 5,000 members.

New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said the new goal would “serve as our North Star, guiding us in the years to come and keeping America on track toward a cleaner, safer future”.

However, Gautam Jain, from the Centre for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, said without new incentives, he was “not sure how much the target would change” among businesses and investors.

Especially as even the current incentives under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act haven’t been enough to put the US on course to reach its interim 2030 target, he said, while action at state level would have carried on regardless.

But although there “may be no immediate impact”, the target would “lay the groundwork” for the next president in 2029 to quickly resume climate action, he added.

How has Donald Trump responded?

Karoline Leavitt, a Donald Trump spokeswoman who will become the youngest-ever White House press secretary when he takes office, declined to comment on the target.

But she said during his previous 2016-2020 term, he produced “affordable, reliable energy for consumers along with stable, high-paying jobs for small businesses – all while dropping US carbon emissions to their lowest level in 25 years”.

While emissions did fall during Mr Trump’s first term, the rate of the fall slowed down, and part of the drop was attributed to a recession.

In his second term, Mr Trump will “once again deliver clean air and water for American families while Making America Wealthy Again”, Ms Leavitt added.

US climate action has global ramifications

President Biden’s new plan covers all greenhouse gases from across the US economy, and puts the country on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050, the White House said.

The course the US charts on climate action will have global ramifications. It is the largest historical emitter and second-largest current emitter.

And as it is the world’s richest country, other countries look to it to either set the bar high for others to aim for, or provide cover for them to sit back.

Debbie Weyl, acting US director at the World Resources Institute, said: “The 2035 emissions reduction target is at the lower bound of what the science demands, and yet it is close to the upper bound of what is realistic if nearly every available policy lever were pulled.

“Assertive action by states and cities will be essential to achieving this goal.”

At the COP29 climate summit, the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled the UK’s new climate goal to slash emissions by 81% by 2035.

US

Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

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2 hours ago

February 13, 2025

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Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

A recording has captured the implosion of the Titan submersible which went missing on its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.

A passive acoustic recorder located around 900 miles from the implosion site picked up the sound, US Coast Guard officials said in a statement.

The short recording includes a loud noise that sounds like a muffled clap, before going silent for a few seconds.

The coastguard said the audio clip “records the suspected acoustic signature of the Titan submersible implosion” on 18 June 2023.

The implosion killed all five people on board – Titan operator Stockton Rush, who founded Oceangate, the company that owned the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert and the sub’s pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The sub vanished on its way to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean, setting off a five-day search that ended when authorities said the vessel had been destroyed with no survivors.

The wreckage was eventually found on the ocean floor around 300m from the Titanic, according to officials.

After the disaster concerns were raised because of the Titan’s unconventional design and Rush’s refusal to submit to independent safety checks.

OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023.

A coastguard panel investigating the disaster heard two weeks of testimony last September, which saw a former OceanGate scientific director say the Titan malfunctioned during a dive just a few days before it imploded.

The coastguard is expected to release more information about the implosion in the future.

A spokesperson said the investigation is still ongoing and a final report will be released after it is completed.

US

Glee actress Naya Rivera’s final words before drowning revealed

Published

2 hours ago

February 13, 2025

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Glee actress Naya Rivera's final words before drowning revealed

Naya Rivera’s ex-boyfriend Ryan Dorsey has – for the first time – shared details from the day she died.

Speaking to People, the 41-year-old actor said that “the last thing she said was his [her son’s] name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore”.

The Glee actress, 33, died after drowning in a California lake in July 2020 – when she was swimming with her young son Josey.

Josey, who was four at the time, told police his mother had boosted him on to the deck – after their boat had drifted away.

Local police said they believe that after saving her son, Rivera did not have enough energy to save herself.

Dorsey says his son, now nine, told him he was worried about getting into the water – and that Rivera had said, “don’t be silly!”.

“Something he’s said over and over is that he was trying to find a life raft, and there was a rope, but there was a big spider on the rope, and he was too scared to throw it,” Dorsey told People.

“I keep reassuring him, buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.”

Dorsey added: “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

The actor says he found out that Rivera was first missing after receiving a call from her stepfather – while he was in a supermarket buying food for a friend’s barbeque.

“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey said. “I feared the worst.”

Dorsey said he immediately got into his car and drove 145 miles to Lake Piru, where Rivera and their son had been swimming.

“I drove 100-and-something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes – and I don’t even smoke, really – and just crying,” he says. “I just wanted to get to Josey.

“If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life.”

He added: “When it happened, I just found myself shaking my head, like, I can’t believe she’s gone. It’s still so surreal every day.”

Dorsey says the holiday period is particularly tough for his nine-year-old son.

He said: “We made this book of memories for Josey that sits by his bed, and during the holidays he was crying looking at it.

“You can only give him a hug and tell him, ‘I know, life is not fair. Bad things happen and there’s no reason for it, and you just have to do your best to be a good person.'”

In 2022, a lawsuit filed by Rivera’s family against Ventura County, California, over her drowning was privately settled.

The lawsuit for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress was filed on behalf of her son.

The family also sued the United Water Conservation District and Parks and Recreation Management, accusing them of failing to warn visitors of the danger of boating and swimming in the lake, and saying Rivera’s death was “utterly preventable”.

They said the rented pontoon boat was not equipped with flotation or lifesaving devices, a ladder, rope, anchor, or any equipment designed to keep swimmers from being separated from their boat.

However, Ventura County officials said the death wasn’t their fault, and said the actress had declined to wear a life jacket. They said the rental agent had put the life jacket in the boat nevertheless.

US

Elon Musk’s X to pay Trump $10m compensation

Published

2 hours ago

February 13, 2025

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Elon Musk's X to pay Trump m compensation

Elon Musk’s X has agreed to pay Donald Trump about $10m (£8m) after suspending his accounts following the 2021 US Capitol riot by his supporters, according to reports.

The payment follows a $25m (£20m) deal the US president’s lawyers struck with Meta Platforms – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – last month.

Mr Trump sued the social media platforms, along with Google’s owner Alphabet Inc, as well as their chief executives, in San Francisco over what he claimed was unlawful silencing of conservative opinions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Twitter had cited the risk of Mr Trump inciting further violence related to his effort to remain in the White House following his loss to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 election as the reason for suspending his account.

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Mr Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has become a fierce supporter of Mr Trump, giving $250m (£202m) to his 2024 election campaign.

The tech billionaire has been chosen by the president to head the new US Department of Government Efficiency – shortened to DOGE – whose purpose is to radically shrink federal bureaucracy.

Mr Trump’s legal team considered dropping the case given the platform’s change of ownership and how close the two men have become, before agreeing to the settlement, the Journal reported – quoting people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers are expected to pursue a similar agreement with Alphabet, which banned Mr Trump from YouTube after the Capitol riot.

Neither the X, nor its CEO at the time of Mr Trump’s suspension, Jack Dorsey, as well as Alphabet and the White House have responded to requests for comment.

Mr Trump has pardoned about 1,500 supporters charged over the violence on 6 January 2021, which saw people storm the Capitol building in Washington to try to stop Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory being signed off.

Sky News has contacted X for comment.