“Climate change is an emergency, an existential threat, an imminent danger. And so I will face it.” These are the words of alarm used yesterday by the president Biden, to announce the new initiatives it intends to take to combat global warming. But he did not proclaim a national emergency, as the environmentalists were asking, because he still hopes to persuade Congress to pass the necessary laws for more concrete interventions.
Record heat in France and throughout Northern Europe
by our correspondent Anais Ginori
The head of the White House spoke at Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts, a former coal-fired power plant closed in 2017 and now transformed into a facility for managing electricity produced through offshore wind. “One hundred million Americans – he said – are exposed to the effects of extreme temperatures right now. If Parliament doesn’t act, I will.”
London, on the hottest day in history, fires also come
by our correspondent Antonello Guerrera
Biden’s decision to resort to executive orders came when Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, blocked ongoing negotiations to approve the administration’s climate program in Congress, which included significant investments in renewables and tax increases for wealthier taxpayers to finance these interventions. The politician of Italian origin represents a state where the coal industry is dominant, and therefore has always been skeptical of environmental policies that would have penalized his main industry. Then he also used the bogeyman of inflation to oppose any further spending initiatives linked to the White House chief’s Build Back Better program.
Bonfires across Europe. Flames in Athens. Trieste remains isolated at risk of water and light
by Viola Giannoli
After the stop in Manchin, the president considered the hypothesis of proclaiming a state of emergency due to the climate, given that at the moment about 100 million Americans are subject to the effects of extraordinary temperatures, in addition of course to the threats of medium and long term posed by global warming. This measure, also used by Trump to build the wall against immigrants on the border with Texas, would have allowed Biden to use funds already allocated by Congress for other purposes, instead directing them towards initiatives aimed at combating the climate crisis. The head of the White House is still considering this possibility, but for the moment he has decided not to use it because he still hopes to convince Manchin, now a decisive vote in the Senate for almost everything, to support at least one compromise law. Therefore he has chosen the path of the decrees announced yesterday, which can be passed even without the approval of Congress.
Record heat, Tozzi: “This is the new normal we are entering the era of fire”
by Corrado Zunino
The new concrete initiatives mainly concern two fields. The first is that of wind energy sources, particularly those developed on the sea, which will receive new support in the Gulf of Mexico region. Then there is a $ 2.3 billion grant to the federal emergency agency Fema to create infrastructure to protect communities most exposed to extreme temperatures, and $ 385 million given to states to help families. low income, paying for air conditioning and service centers to shelter in the heat. That’s not what environmentalists were asking, but Biden can’t do more until he can get Congress to act.