(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

With just weeks left in office, President Joe Biden announced on Thursday an aggressive new climate goal to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by two-thirds by 2035, a move that the incoming administration is likely to ignore.

"Today, as the United States continues to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, President Biden is announcing a new climate target for the United States: a 61-66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions," the White House said in a statement, released just one month before the end of Biden’s presidency.

The announcement comes as President-elect Donald Trump has promised to roll back many of Biden’s climate policies. As part of his "drill, baby, drill" agenda, Trump plans to ramp up fossil fuel production and open federal lands and waters to drilling, reversing Biden's extensive restrictions.

The White House will formally submit the new target to the United Nations Climate Change secretariat under the Paris Agreement, which calls on international powers to self-impose environmental regulations.

At the beginning of his first term, President-elect Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement. Trump has not said whether he will remove the United States from the treaty in his second term, Fox News reported.

John Podesta, a senior White House adviser for international climate policy, told reporters that Biden’s final climate push reflects what America should look to "achieve in the future."

"President Biden’s new 2035 climate goal is both a reflection of what we’ve already accomplished … and what we believe the United States can and should achieve in the future," Podesta told Politico.

Source link