President Joe Biden introduced a number of new climate measures on Friday as many parts of the United States are still reeling from dangerous heat waves, wildfires and other climate-related conditions. Its measures are intended for the workers’ safety, better infrastructures, and faster shifts to renewable energy sources.
Some of the important components of the plan include an effort to establish the first federal heat standard for workers. The Department of Labor will continue its efforts to promulgate standards which would set legal mandates for employers to furnish water, rest and shade to employees working outdoors where temperatures are high or potentially lethal. The administration believes this could safeguard more than 32 million employees throughout the country.
Biden is also instructing federal departments to enhance the predictions of climate and early warning systems especially on heat waves. This entails the extension of the application of heat mapping technology in the detection of the urban heat islands and the at risk groups. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be given more money to improve the agency’s weather forecasting capacities.
On the energy front, the Department of Energy is today announcing a new effort to increase deployment of clean energy technologies in disadvantaged communities. This is in addition to $100M in grants for community solar together with energy storage systems in poor neighborhoods. The administration believes this will help lower emissions as well as the energy bills for needy families.
The president is also directing federal agencies to review and enhance their climate adaptation strategies, specifically for the mitigation of damages to infrastructure due to climate-related perils. This includes evaluating the resilience of electricity and power networks, transportation infrastructure and water supply to heat waves, floods and other climate risks.
While many environmental groups have welcomed the new measures they say much bolder action is required to meet the administration’s target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030. Some of the activists are now pressuring Biden to formally declare the climate crisis as an emergency that would further open up more executive authority on the same.
While the Republicans and industry groups have dismissed some parts of the plan, most notably the heat standard for workers, they say that the proposal will put too many constraints on the companies. They argue that self-regulation codes and current precautionary controls are adequate to safeguard the employees.
The climate initiatives have been proposed as the US and much of the rest of the world has seen record high temperatures this summer. This July is set to become the hottest on record, with heatwaves impacting millions of people in North America, Europe and Asia.
The experts have pointed out that these disasters are indications of increasing effects of climate change caused mainly by the use of fossil fuels in industries. They say that if GHG emissions are not quickly and deeply cut, such severe weather will become more frequent and intense.
That is why climate change is becoming one of the significant topics in the presidential campaign leading up to the 2024 election. Although Biden has made it central to his administration’s goals, most Republican hopefuls have denounced his polices as too expensive and detrimental to the economy. The polarized political response is part of a wider discussion concerning the function of government in relation to large-scale environmental problems.
