WASHINGTON — Despite the Biden administration's policies to combat climate change, recent studies showing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at record highs have raised attention among advocates for aggressive climate action about the November presidential election.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been at record highs for the past two years, according to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the spike from 2022 to 2024 will be the largest two-year increase recorded in the 50 years that NOAA has been collecting data.
As the presidential election approaches, advocates say key policy measures to curb climate change are at a tipping point, with President Donald Trump's reelection likely to favor fossil fuel interests and roll back much of the environmental progress made under the Biden administration.
The record carbon dioxide increase came despite President Joe Biden's focus on the environment and climate. According to an analysis by the liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, the Biden administration has done more to address climate issues than previous administrations, including issuing executive orders, proposing and supporting ambitious legislation, and setting carbon reduction targets.
During the 2019 campaign, Biden told voters, “We're going to end fossil fuels.”
His campaign then announced a plan in July 2020 to phase out fossil fuel energy production by 2035.
And when he first took office, President Biden pledged to cut emissions in half below 2005 levels by 2030.
Biden's climate change record
The United States is on track to meet that goal, according to the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based research organization.
A January 2024 study found that greenhouse gas emissions, which include carbon dioxide as well as many other types of gases, fell 2% in 2023 from the previous year and more than 17% below 2005 levels. At the same time, U.S. gross domestic product, a rough estimate of the total economic output, grew by more than 2%.
“This suggests that the Biden administration's climate change policies are starting to have an effect and are tipping the emissions curve downward,” said Eric Schlenker Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, an environmental group.
Schlenker Goodrich added that Biden has put the U.S. economy on a path away from “fossil fuel and carbon-intensive sectors of the economy.”
He pointed to the Beat Inflation Act — the Comprehensive Climate, Health, and Tax Act that Congress passed in 2022 with Democratic votes and significant support from the Biden administration — as a critical investment to address climate change and build the U.S. economy around climate-friendly practices.
Biden signed the bill into law in August 2022. The law provides $369 billion in tax credits and spending for renewable energy programs, including tax credits for electric vehicles, and provides incentives for climate-smart agriculture.
Climate and infrastructure
The Labor Energy Partnership, a joint venture between the AFL-CIO and the Washington, D.C.-based clean energy policy nonprofit Energy Future Initiative, projects that the IRA could create more than 1.5 million clean energy manufacturing jobs and add $250 billion to the economy by 2030.
Schlenker Goodrich said climate-focused legislation and the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by President Biden in 2021 provide critical resources for developing climate-friendly practices.
“The key is to build a foundation through American infrastructure,” he said.
The administration continues to take action on climate change.
Following NOAA's announcement of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the Department of Energy and NOAA signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the future on a climate initiative on marine carbon dioxide removal and research, an effort that NOAA called a “critical pathway” to meeting its 2050 emissions goal, according to a NOAA press release.
“Assuming the Biden administration gets a second term, that second term should be dedicated to considering how we can advance a just transition away from our dependence on oil and gas,” Schlenker Goodrich said.
The American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents the oil and gas industry, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Differences with Trump
Trump has criticized Biden's record on climate and energy and promised to do more to accommodate the oil and gas industry.
According to The Washington Post, at a meeting in April at the former president's South Florida club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, Trump told the nation's top oil executives that if elected, he would roll back Biden's environmental policies and halt all future ones. In return, Trump asked them to donate $1 billion to his campaign.
After the meeting, Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon launched an investigation and raised questions about the reported kickback fundraising tactics.
“Whether it was Donald Trump promising to roll back climate change action in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions or the fossil fuel industry conspiring to inflate gasoline prices, Trump and Big Oil have proven they are willing to betray the American people to line their own pockets,” Whitehouse said in a written statement to States Newsroom.
“Let me be clear: a Trump presidency would be disastrous for progress on climate change and for our efforts to protect our economy from the damage caused by climate change.”
The Biden campaign also called attention to Trump's ties to the fossil fuel industry, saying in a statement that he intends to work in their favor.
“Donald Trump has called climate change a 'hoax' and secretly promised oil and gas executives that they'd get anything they wanted if they donated to his campaign,” a campaign spokesperson wrote. “The planet needs a president who will fight the climate crisis, not one who pretends it doesn't exist.”
Asked how a Trump presidency would affect climate change, Schlenker Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center said, “It would be disastrous.”
“When it comes to tackling climate change, they will do everything they can within their power, perhaps even beyond legal limits, to support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our country's energy transition,” he said.
First semester
According to the Brookings Institution, the Trump administration has “largely succeeded in weakening existing environmental regulations” enacted during the administration of Barack Obama.
According to an analysis by the Brookings Institution, the Trump administration had taken 74 actions to weaken environmental protections by August 2020.
Trump's 2024 campaign has already laid out plans for environmental and energy policy changes if elected in November, including drilling for natural gas and oil, which Trump often refers to as “liquid gold.”
Trump also plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, as he did in 2019, and oppose Democratic efforts to implement the Green New Deal, an ambitious climate change initiative supported by the party's progressive wing, according to his campaign website. He also plans to reverse Biden's efforts to build more affordable electric vehicles in the United States.
A campaign spokesman added that Biden's priorities include ensuring the lowest energy prices for Americans, keeping inflation down and creating more jobs for American workers across the fossil fuel industry, and that his administration is doing the exact opposite.
“No one has done more damage to America's oil and gas industry than Joe Biden,” the spokesperson wrote.
