Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

USA Officially Returns Today to Paris Climate Agreement


Fri 19 Feb 2021 | 08:10 PM
Ahmed Moamar

The United States of America (USA) officially returned today to the Paris Climate Agreement to revitalize the global fight against climate change.

US  President Joe Biden's administration plans to drastically reduce emissions over the next three decades.

Foreign scholars and diplomats welcomed Washington's return to the agreement, which became official 30 days after Biden issued an executive order on the move on his first day in office.

Since nearly 200 countries signed the 2015 agreement in the French capital to combat the disastrous effects of climate change, the United States has been the only country that withdrew from it.

Former President Donald Trump took this step, claiming that fighting climate change was too costly.

The US envoy for climate affairs, John Kerry, will participate in online events, on Friday, to mark his country's return to the agreement, and include meetings with the ambassadors of Britain and Italy, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the UN climate envoy Michael Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, American media reported that nearly 50 people were killed by the severe cold wave that is currently hitting the United States.

According to the American "Washington Post" newspaper, at least 47 people have been killed in the country since Sunday, 30 of them in Texas, but the newspaper noted that the real number of victims "is beyond any doubt."

Earlier, about 37 deaths were reported as a result of the cold and snowy weather that swept the United States.

The newspaper pointed out that some of the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning during heating, others from hypothermia or accidents, and most of the victims had not yet been identified.

The United States is witnessing a severe cold wave, the most severe in Texas, as snowfall in the southern United States resulted in power outages for more than 5 million people, including more than 4.3 million in Texas.