Biden visits Amazon, says climate legacy irreversible
Nobody can reverse America's 'clean energy revolution,' said the president, despite the incoming Trump administration's promises to dismantle climate policies
What happened
President Joe Biden made a stopover in the Brazilian Amazon Sunday, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the world's largest tropical rainforest. Biden took a helicopter tour of the jungle around Manaus and visited a nearby nature reserve situated where the Negro and Amazon rivers meet, signing a declaration designating Nov. 17 International Conservation Day.
Who said what
"The fight against climate change has been a defining cause of my presidency," Biden said, noting hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. investments in renewable energy and global climate aid. "I will leave my successor and my country a strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so." It's true that "some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that's underway in America, but nobody — nobody — can reverse it," he added. Not when so many Americans are "enjoying its benefits" and "countries around the world are harnessing the clean energy revolution to pull ahead themselves."
President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to rip Biden's climate policies "to shreds when he returns to office in January," Politico said. Trump has "pledged to again pull out of the Paris agreement" and "rescind unspent money in energy efficiency legislation," The Associated Press said. And on Saturday he picked Chris Wright, "the head of fracking company Liberty Energy," to be the next energy secretary, The Washington Post said. Wright "contends that the climate crisis is a myth" and "runs a foundation that promotes expanded fossil fuel production."
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What next?
Biden travels next to Rio de Janeiro for a G20 summit "where the future of global climate policy is likely to be a major point of discussion," Politico said. At a concurrent United Nations climate summit in Azerbaijan, "global leaders were already discussing a path forward without the U.S. playing a key leadership role."
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