On the first day of the Biden-Harris administration, President Biden signed an executive order to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. This order reversed the 2017 Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. As NPR reports, “It will take 30 days for the U.S. to officially rejoin the agreement, but meeting its targets is going to be a taller order. The U.S. is the second-largest producer of carbon emissions, behind China, and has contributed more to global climate change over time than any other country.”

We at NETWORK applaud the Biden administration’s commitment to global solidarity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and confronting the realities of climate change. As Pope Francis says in his encyclical Laudato Si’, “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.” (Paragraph 25)

We know that humans are intimately connected with all life on earth. Recent reports show that the global climate crisis has and will continue to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable unless bold action is taken. We look forward to working with the Biden administration to support bold actions that deepen our care for the Earth and for one another.