By Asitha Jayawardena

Yesterday, 46^th President of the US Joe Biden inaugurated along with the Vice President Kamala Harris. His promise of re-joining the Paris Agreement did happen, along with several executive orders.

Meanwhile, two studies before his inauguration came into public; one is American and the other is European. Both surveys have a positive go for the battling of climate change.

The Americans: global warming, clean energy, decarbonization and the Paris Agreement

Conducted by climate change communication programmes of Yale University and George Mason University in December 2020, it surveyed nearly 1,000 registered voters from across the political spectrum — Republicans, Democrats, and independents. The questions asked were in relation to climate change and the policies to address it.

The survey found 53% of registered voters think global warming should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. A higher amount of 66% believed about developing clean energy sources.

From eight energy policies that would help address climate change, two received 82% approval among all voters. They are providing tax rebates for the purchase of solar panels or energy-efficient vehicles and funding research for renewable energy.

Two-thirds of the American voters won the approval for decarbonization — eliminating all carbon pollution from coal, oil, and gas. However, this policy received 50% of the support of moderate Republicans and 29% of backing of the most conservative.

President Biden’s re-joining of the Paris climate agreement was supported by 75% voters – 95% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans. Now in office, his climate plan endeavours the decarbonization of the US power sector by 2035 and achievement of net-zero carbon by 2050. According to this study, two thirds of the US voters back the plan.

While climate change is still a divisive issue, there’s now growing evidence that climate-friendly policies and taking action on climate change have support from both Democrats and Republicans.

The Europeans: less flying and less eating meat

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the European Investment Bank (EIB) published the results of a survey among 27,700 survey respondents in the EU’s 27 countries in October-November 2020. In this, European citizens intend to fly less and already eat less meat to help fight climate change.

Once the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, 74% of respondents said that they intend to fly less for environmental reasons and that included 43% who said they would do this “all the time” and 31% who said they would “from time to time”. Moreover, 71% said they planned to choose trains over planes short-haul trips.

Asked about the diet, 66% of Europeans said they already eat less meat to fight climate change and 13% planned to do soon.

So, in Europe, less flying as well as less meat eating will have a considerable impact on climate change once the Covid-19 restrictions are gone.

Deaths in America exceeds 400,000 or 20%

The US witnessed the demise of 400,000 citizens to Covid-19 as the inauguration of Biden happened. Today, the death toll stands as 416,000 Americans.

Meanwhile, death tolls in the Europe are as follows: UK 94,000, Italy 84,000, France 71,000, Spain 54,000 and Germany 50,000.

The total number of deaths are 2,090,000. That is, around one fifth are Americans.

Now Day 2 of the Biden’s inauguration, we hope the Americans would not succumb to Covid-19 as did with Trump anymore. What’s more, the world would see a future without climate changing so much as well as coronavirus. That day will come soon!

More…

Most Democrats and Republicans think the government should make climate change a priority https://www.vox.com/2021/1/15/22233228/democrats-republicans-view-climate-change-global-warming

Most Europeans plan to curb flying, eat less meat for climate, EU poll says https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/europe-flying-climate-change-covid-19-global-warming-emissions-sustainability/

Coronavirus https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/