Biden at 100 Days: A Climate Foreign-Policy Scorecard
April 27, 2021
Jeff D. Colgan and co-authors Thomas N. Hale (University of Oxford) and Scott M. Moore (University of Pennsylvania) recently published "Biden @ 100 DAYS: A Climate Foreign-Policy Scorecard," which examines the current administration's actions and commitment to reorienting U.S. foreign policy to meet the climate challenge.
Climate change is the defining global challenge of the twenty-first century. It constitutes a direct threat to the safety and prosperity of Americans. U.S. President Joe Biden has committed to reorienting U.S. foreign policy to meet the climate challenge. This report provides an early assessment of the Biden administration’s international climate diplomacy against these goals in the first 100 days, recognizing that others have focused on domestic policy, and that climate change must be at the top of the U.S. foreign-policy agenda. It builds on a previous report by the Brown University Climate Solutions Lab, issued on October 8, 2020, that identified and recommended ten executive climate actions, which are central to advancing U.S. foreign-policy objectives.
Of the 9 internationally-oriented climate pledges evaluated, made by the Biden campaign during the 2020 presidential election, the report finds that the Biden team has already delivered effectively on 4 of them, made some progress on 2, and taken baby steps or made no real progress on 3. These will require further attention and resources in the coming months.