{"id":46730,"date":"2022-07-01T17:22:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T16:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=46730"},"modified":"2022-07-01T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T16:22:50","slug":"an-uncertain-climate-partner-climate-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2022\/07\/01\/an-uncertain-climate-partner-climate-weekly\/","title":{"rendered":"An uncertain climate partner – Climate Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The international climate community has become somewhat used to the US’ wind-screen wiper approach to climate action, making big promises on the international stage and then stepping away.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The latest Supreme Court ruling, which curtails the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate power plants, has dealt another blow to president Joe Biden’s efforts to rebuild the US’ climate credibility.<\/p>\n

The court ruled<\/a> that, while the EPA can regulate emissions from individual power plants, it cannot set standards to shift power from fossil fuel plants to cleaner sources.<\/p>\n

It could have been worse. Environmentalists were worried the ruling could weaken the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases – which it didn’t do. But the ruling does take off the table one of the most effective regulatory tools to reduce the country’s emissions in the power system.<\/p>\n

“It means that the agency is going to have a more difficult time establishing nationwide limits on carbon pollution [from power plants],” said Andres Restrepo, senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Programme.<\/p>\n

That poses a direct challenge to Biden’s commitment to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035.<\/p>\n

Around the world, climate negotiators and observers have told Climate Home News the decision further undermines confidence in the White House’s ability to deliver on its climate goal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will no doubt be noticed by Beijing and feed into its long-standing perception that significant US federal action is not possible,” China-watcher Li Shuo said.<\/p>\n

Rachel Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientist, had this message for the rest of the world: “This is the moment to put pressure on the US to deliver. This is not a moment to walk away and give up on the US because there’s some real important opportunities that we need to lean into here and policymakers need to feel the pressure from the international arena for the US to live up to its responsibilities.”<\/p>\n

This week’s news…<\/strong><\/p>\n