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Added on the 03/09/2016 08:00:22 - Copyright : Euronews EN
While President Donald Trump sends his lawyers hither-and-yon to try to overturn the election, President-elect Joe Biden has been busy filling Cabinet slots. HuffPost reports Biden named John Kerry on Monday as his special envoy on climate. He's tasked the former secretary of state with steering a 180-degree turn in US diplomacy on the issue. Kerry will also be advising the incoming Biden administration on the security challenges a warming planet poses. America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is. Kerry will represent the US at a moment that scholars increasingly see as a period of American imperial decline amid unprecedented planetary changes.
President-elect Joe Biden plans to start transforming America's stance on the global stage with a series of day-one executive actions. CNN reports Biden's transition team is beginning to turn his campaign-trail promises into plans he can implement early in his presidency. Sources say Biden's first focus is likely to be the worsening coronavirus pandemic. He is set to name a 12-person coronavirus task force on Monday. Biden intends to rejoin the Paris climate accord, a landmark international deal to combat climate change that Trump exited in 2017. The president-elect has also said he would rejoin the World Health Organization, which President Donald Trump moved to withdraw from this year.
Republican electoral victories Tuesday cast doubt over whether the US would enact any significant measures to curb planet-heating emissions in the near-term. States were still tallying results on Wednesday as the Trump administration officially withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. According to HuffPost, that makes the US the only country to exit the nonbinding global pact to cut climate-changing carbon emissions. In Montana and Texas, climate-change-denying candidates cruised to victory. While many Senate and House races remain undecided, two sunny spots for climate advocates and environmentalists were in Arizona and in Colorado. Democrat Mark Kelly handily beat Arizona Republican Sen. Martha McSally. Kelly made tackling climate change a key part of his platform. And in Colorado, former governor and 2020 presidential contender John Hickenlooper ousted Republican Sen. Cory Gardner. Claiming to be a 'national leader' on climate, Gardner consistently peddles the conspiracy theory that environmentalists are plotting to control the economy.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker vows there can be "no backsliding" on the Paris climate agreement following the US pullout from the landmark deal. SOUNDBITE
This giant metallic structure is actually a massive dust screen. This gigantic dust filter was built in the Chinese port city of Qinhuangdo to tackle the ever-present problem of pollution, which affects many Chinese cities. The dust shield is 75 feet tall, stretches for over 9,500 feet, and serves as a blockade against dust from the port's coal and mineral heaps. The Hebei Port Group plans to extend the dust screen to 11 miles, which should make it the largest in the world. The first ever red alert for severe fog issued in China last year proves that pollution continues to be a major problem. Thick smog even rolled through Beijing during New Year's Eve celebrations. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has cracked down on some 500 Chinese companies for violations of laws on limiting smog levels in a bid to tackle ongoing severe weather issues
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says climate change scepticism is over, after the U.S. joined China to ratify the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions. Rough cut (no reporter narration).
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