President Biden is nailing this crisis
President Biden’s trip to the G20 Summit hasn’t really gotten too much coverage – as the yearly economic conference has gone back to being mostly just boring news again without a president who manages to repeatedly embarrass himself on the world stage in attendance or tank the stock market because he decided to publicly threaten our allies while making himself out to be a Russian lackey. While President Biden did a pretty good job of restoring dignity on his trip so far, with his meeting with Pope Francis standing out in particular, some pretty important things were accomplished in the way of policy that likely went unnoticed by the average voter.
This is particularly important, because much of Biden’s criticism from the left has been accusations that he’s not moving aggressively enough on climate change – after four very regressive years that were catastrophic for the environment. The G20 Summit has made climate change a focal point this year – with the 20 convening nations agreeing to ways that can prevent the planet from warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next decade.
This is why the Build Back Better plan has set aside over $500 billion to support green energy initiatives and other measures related to climate change – guarding against erosion and flooding – paying for the problem while also creating new jobs. There is a good chance that Build Back Better will pass in the next few days, just as the 20 wealthiest nations in the world are discussing practical solutions for climate change and as the summit unfolds, we’ll likely be hearing a number of new commitments. It may not be advertised as such, but this G20 could easily be one of the most consequential in our lifetimes.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making