President Biden said in his inaugural address that a cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can't be clearer.
He promised that the climate crisis would be a top priority at home and abroad. He said that the United States would lead the way to a safer future by cutting its emissions.
The domestic climate agenda of Mr. Biden is hobbled. His weakened position at home makes it difficult for the United States to convince other nations to follow its direction in the fight to hold back the rising heat.
The world breathed a sigh of relief when Biden took office. It didn't work out that way
Sign up for the Climate Forward newsletter Your must-read guide to the climate crisis.Legislation to speed the replacement of coal and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and other renewable energy sources has been blocked by Congress.
The war in Ukraine has reignited global demand for fossil fuels and has created a domestic political problem for Mr. Biden, opening the door for his Republican critics to call for more, not less, gas and oil drilling.
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the EPA cannot limit emissions from power plants.
It will be nearly impossible for Mr. Biden to reach his goal of cutting emissions from the US in half by the year 2030. It becomes more difficult for America to convince other countries to do the same.
Saleemul Huq is the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. It is disappointing that the U.S. can't show leadership.
Even as Mr. Biden's domestic climate agenda faces trouble, his climate envoy, John Kerry, continues to criss-cross the globe, trying to convince other countries to quickly move away from fossil fuels ahead of the next round of global climate talks.
Mr. Huq said that John Kerry can say all the right things, but he can't get the US to deliver them. He loses credibility when he preaches to other people.
The United Nations Secretary General called the Supreme Court ruling a setback in the fight against climate change when they are already far off-track. More than 200 nations agreed to cut pollution to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. The likelihood of catastrophic climate impacts will increase if the temperature goes above 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The planet has already warmed by an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius. The amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by humans was 36 billion tons, more than any previous year.
The Supreme Court decision came during a week of meetings for President Biden with allies in Europe, including the leaders of the Group of 7 nations. The leaders renewed their pledges for strong climate action. Efforts to shore up energy supplies across the continent and ease the pain of oil and natural gas price spikes are more important than immediate emissions reduction.
Many of Mr. Biden's peers are struggling for authority on the climate issue.
A plan to transition to renewable energy was unveiled by the European Commission. After shuttering its nuclear power plants, Germany is looking to increase imports of liquified natural gas. Coal power generation is being boosted by several countries.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, told a special session on climate at the Madrid summit that high oil and gas prices have led some countries to return to coal. It's bad for climate, but it shows the desperation they're in.
The United States is in a difficult position in the fight against climate change.
It is home to many of the oil and gas companies that have worked against climate action for decades. Americans use more energy per capita than people in many other countries. Climate change has become a partisan issue with most Republicans questioning the need to quickly reduce emissions.
Over the past 30 years, the United States has played an important role in helping to address climate change.
The efforts to shape a unified international approach to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions have been made possible by American presidents and diplomats.
The United States has been an architect of international coordination on the issue of climate change. It's a key thinker on how to uphold those commitments.
American policy has been inconsistent, with Democratic administrations pressing for more aggressive climate action, and Republican administrations backing away from the commitments their predecessors designed.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol was designed by the US under President Bill Clinton. Bush left it a few years later.
The same thing happened more recently.
The United States and China will work together to tackle climate change in different ways. The Paris Agreement was signed by leading economies and developing nations.
The United States was the only country to withdraw from the agreement.
Rachel Kyte said that American leadership has waned.
Mr. Kerry was appointed the first ever presidential climate envoy when Mr. Biden took office last year.
Several new efforts to help tackle global warming, including the Global Energy Alliance, Global Finance Alliance and a pledge by more than 100 countries to slash methane emissions were secured by the United States.
Major global coordination to tackle the world's toughest problems can't happen without American leadership. It is true on the food crisis and on the climate.
International diplomacy is one aspect of the climate agenda that gives me hope. These things are making a difference.
The decision is a key one. A blow to the Biden administration's efforts to address climate change was dealt by a Supreme Court ruling limiting the EPA's ability to regulate carbon emissions. This is what to know.
There is a case. The justices were asked to rule on whether the Clean Air Act allows the E.P.A. to issue sweeping regulations across the power sector.
There is a suspended rule. The Clean Power Plan was an Obama-era federal regulation that sought to regulate emissions from power plants. The program was put on hold by the Supreme Court after it was announced and never took effect.
There are consequences to the stakes. The E.P.A. and other federal agencies that issue regulations that affect the American economy should be set by Congress, according to the lawsuit.
There was a decision. The ruling restricts the ability of the E.P.A. to regulate the energy sector, limiting it to measures like emission controls at individual power plants.
There are further implications. The decision could affect the ability of federal agencies to regulate health care, workplace safety, telecommunications and the financial sector.
The Biden administration has been working to develop partnerships between the public and private sectors to encourage big companies to buy more environmentally friendly versions of products like aluminum and steel.
The world is nervously watching the fall elections after six years of policy whiplash.
There is a lot of angst that there could be another Trump presidency. The rest of the world is affected by that.
Ramn Cruz is the president of the Sierra Club.
He said the U.S. can maintain its credibility if the climate commitments made by the Democrats are fulfilled. President Biden needs to use every tool at his disposal to address the climate crisis and show the world that the US is a leader.
Scientists are issuing increasingly dire warnings about the risks of burning fossil fuels, and around the globe, extreme weather, heat waves, fires, and rapid changes to the climate are unleashing successive waves of human suffering.
The secretary general of the United Nations said that new funding for fossil fuel exploration is delusional. Fossil fuels are not the way to go. It's renewable energy.
Despite their lofty commitments, major industrialized nations are showing little capacity to take the kind of swift action that scientists say is needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change
The world is addicted to fossil fuels. The Russians are trying to find something else after they turned it off. We are moving backwards rather than forwards.
Jim reported from Madrid.
Lisa Friedman is a reporter.
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