The US has fallen way behind on climate goals

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Two new studies show that the US is doing a poor job of following through on its promises to tackle climate change. The US is now ranked 43rd out of 180 nations that Columbia and Yale evaluated in their most recent Environmental Performance Index. Since the last time the researchers ranked countries in 2020, the US has plummeted.

The US fell all the way to 101 from its previous position of 15th place because of the evaluation's focus on climate indicators alone. The US's ranking was reported by The New York Times today.

A recent paper published in the journal Science found that the US is way off track from achieving its goals in reducing carbon emissions. It will take a monumental effort to transform the nation's power and transportation systems.

The New York Times reports that the latest EPI shows the about-face in climate policies under Donald Trump. The US pulled out of the Paris climate agreement after Trump rolled back dozens of environmental regulations. The Paris accord commits nearly all of the world's nations to emissions reductions aimed at keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. A 2-degree Celsius increase would cause devastating losses to the ecosystems and people who depend on them.

The US recommitted to the Paris Agreement immediately after Biden took office. Legislation to move the US to clean energy more quickly has been stymied in Congress. Biden pledged to cut US carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by the end of the decade. That is in line with what is needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

It is not in line with what is happening on the ground. According to an analysis published last week in the journal Science, current policies are only projected to cut the US's energy emissions by between 6 and 28 percent by 2030.

The paper's authors looked at six major energy and economy models to figure out what is needed for the US to actually follow through on its pledge to halving emissions. In order to meet the stated emissions goals, the nation's grid and transportation system need to be overhauled, according to the consensus from all six models. Wind and solar are clean energy sources that we need more of. The models agree that coal needs to disappear from the power sector. Over the past decade, wind and solar capacity has grown at a slower rate.

The Biden administration wants to phase out gas-guzzling cars but not aggressively enough. Biden signed an executive order last year that stated that half of all new cars should be hybrid or electric by the year 2030. The new paper shows that by the year 2030, 70 percent of new cars need to be electric.

Thanks to the drop in renewable energy prices and a corresponding drop in per capita energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen in the United States. According to the lead author of the Science article, the pace of greenhouse gas reductions in the US needs to be three times faster in order to achieve Biden's proposed 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions. Since the US is the second biggest climate polluter after China, the action it takes next matters a lot.