NRDC President: “This is a Turning Point in the Climate Fight”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Biden has signed sweeping climate, tax and health care legislation into law today. 

Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), made the following statement:

“This is a turning point in the climate fight - the strongest U.S. action yet to confront the existential challenge of our time. Our children are watching. This gives me more hope than ever that we’ll do what we must to leave them a healthier, safer and more prosperous world.

“Moving forward, we must implement this progress in a way that drives benefits to the people who need them most and ensures that frontline communities aren’t further burdened by climate and fossil fuel harm. That means making certain that investments to fight climate change meet the administration’s Justice40 goals by addressing environmental injustice and spurring economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities. 

"This bill moves us closer to President Biden’s pledge to cut climate pollution 50-52 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. To get there, he must use his established authority to write rules to help cut carbon pollution from our cars, trucks and dirty power plants, reduce methane emissions, and keep investors informed on corporate climate risk. And we must strengthen, not weaken, the commonsense safeguards we all depend on to protect the environment and public health.

“This act will help the United States, the world’s largest historical emitter of carbon pollution, to meet its global responsibility to cut emissions in line with what’s needed to avert climate catastrophe. That’s critical, and it twins with the U.S. obligation to increase support for vulnerable countries and communities suffering from a crisis others have caused.”

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.