Environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration

The environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration includes a series of laws, regulations, and programs introduced by United States President Joe Biden since he took office in January 2021. Many of the actions taken by the Biden administration reversed the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden's climate change policy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, similar to the efforts taken by the Obama administration. Biden promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. The main climate target of the Biden administration is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United States to net zero by 2050. John Kerry leads the effort as Special Envoy for Climate.

On his first day in office, Biden began to make policy changes to protect the environment. He began revising and strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and ordered a number of executive orders aimed at reviewing or undoing the environmental policies of the former administration, including removal of some wildlife protections, the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and drilling for oil and gas on federal lands. In the same day he rejoined the Paris Agreement. Biden supported climate justice and sustainable transport. The Biden administration delivered a tax plan to congress aiming to wind back fossil fuel subsidies, replacing them with incentives for green energy. Its proposed budget includes a 30% increase in funding for clean energy, including in rural communities. Biden has ordered the amount of energy produced from offshore wind turbines to be doubled by 2030. In April 2021, Biden hosted a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders. In November 2021, Biden and other world leaders met at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to negotiate goals to reduce global warming. After four years of absence under the former president, the U.S. sought to regain its credibility. In November 2021 Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a major pillar of his environmental policy. By July 2022, the Biden administration had created 54 environmental policies and proposed 43 more. In August 2022, Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes the largest federal climate change investment in American history.

The Inflation Reduction Act alone can create 3 trillion dollars of climate investments in 2022-2032 and 11 trillion dollars in overall infrastructure investments by 2050. According to some estimates, with the Inflation Reduction Act and other federal and state measures, the USA pledge in Paris agreement: 50%-52% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by the year 2030, can be "within reach".