US officially rejoins Paris Climate Agreement

The United State is back in the Paris Climate Agreement_ just 107 days after it left.

While Friday s return is heavily symbolic_ world leaders expect the US to prove its seriousness after four years of being mostly absent. They are especially keen to hear an announcement from Washington in the coming months on the US s goal for cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2030.

The US return to the Paris agreement became official on Friday_ almost a month after Joe Biden told the UN that the US intended to rejoin.

 A cry for survival comes from the planet itself_ US President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address.  A cry that can t be any more desperate or any more clear now.

He signed an executive order on his first day in office that reversed the withdrawal ordered by Ex President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration had announced its departure from the Paris accord in 2019 but it did not become effective until 4 November 2020_ the day after the election_ because of provisions in the agreement.

The UN secretary general_ António Guterres_ said on Thursday the official US re-entry  is itself very important _ as was Biden s announcement that the US would return to providing climate aid to poorer countries_ as promised in 2009.

The former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said_ "It s the political message that is being sent. She was one of the leading forces in hammering out the 2015 mostly voluntary agreement where countries set their own goals to reduce greenhouse gases.

One fear was that other countries would follow the US in abandoning the climate fight_ but none did_ Figueres said. She said the real issue was four years of climate inaction by the Trump administration. US cities_ states and businesses still worked to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide_ but without the federal government.

More than 120 countries_ including the world s biggest emitter_ China_ have promised to have net zero carbon emissions around mid-century.

The University of Maryland environment professor Nathan Hultman_ who worked on the Obama administration s Paris goal_ said he expected a 2030 target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions between 40% and 50% from the 2005 baseline levels.

A longtime international target_ included in the Paris accord with an even more stringent goal_ is to keep warming below 2C above pre-industrial levels. The world has already warmed about 1.2C since that time.