{"id":10236,"date":"2021-01-19T10:45:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T10:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=151717"},"modified":"2021-01-19T10:45:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T10:45:27","slug":"what-do-bidens-cabinet-picks-show-about-his-plans-to-act-on-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/19\/what-do-bidens-cabinet-picks-show-about-his-plans-to-act-on-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"What do Biden\u2019s cabinet picks show about his plans to act on climate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Biden will become our 46th president tomorrow with a scaled-down, masked-up inauguration, an evenly divided Senate, and a gargantuan amount of work to correct course on the pandemic, our racial justice reckoning, and an increasingly urgent climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Of course, Biden won\u2019t face these challenges alone. He has spent weeks assembling a Cabinet and naming people to key White House positions. Climate and social justice advocates have watched the process closely, and the ratings are in: The president-elect is bringing an A-team.<\/p>\n

If the Senate confirms the entire slate, Biden\u2019s Cabinet will represent several historic firsts<\/a>. Most notably, it will be the first to achieve gender parity, and the first with a majority of positions held by people of color. Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico will be the first Native American woman to lead the Department of the Interior; retired four-star General Lloyd Austin will be the first Black secretary of defense. And, of course, Senator Kamala Harris is the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as vice president.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s choices reveal a commitment to mobilizing the entire government to address climate change<\/a>, a promise he made a pillar of his campaign. Climate advocates have been impressed by Biden\u2019s picks not only to lead agencies like the EPA that are central to environmental stewardship, but also by the climate-conscious nominees<\/a> slated for departments like Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Treasury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these picks indicate that Biden is taking his mandate to act on climate seriously,\u201d says Gabe Vasquez<\/strong>,<\/a> a conservation advocate and city councilor for Las Cruces, New Mexico. \u201cHe has selected a diverse, experienced, and passionate group of leaders to take on this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked a group of experts for their take on, well, the experts. Four Grist 50 Fixers<\/a> share their perspectives on what these Cabinet selections signify and what Biden\u2019s team might accomplish in the next four years. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

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\"Oday<\/p>\n

Oday Salim<\/strong><\/a>, conservation justice activist and attorney at National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes<\/a><\/p>\n

Once Biden becomes president, he will have already done more for the climate, institutionally speaking, than any other president by adding domestic and international envoys for climate in Gina McCarthy and John Kerry. And picks like Deb Haaland and Michael Regan<\/a> tell us he is serious about bringing on people who place justice at the heart of their work. But those leaders must live up to their records \u2014 and improve upon them. They need to prioritize public health whenever they\u2019re thinking about environmental protection and climate change, and they need to fill their agencies with people who are from, or have worked with, vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n

Our cities are not green enough. They don\u2019t have enough parks, trees, or landscaping. With all that asphalt and concrete absorbing sunlight, many cities suffer from the heat-island effect<\/a>. As flooding intensifies, those surfaces can\u2019t prevent runoff. The EPA can revise its Clean Water Act permits and enforcement to incentivize utilities to play the long game. Instead of building massive underground tunnels to avoid sewage outflows and backups, they can plant urban forests for stormwater management. Those kinds of improvements provide ancillary public-health benefits while building up communities that historically have been deprived of economic development and access to green spaces.<\/p>\n

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\"Ashley<\/p>\n

Ashley Hand<\/strong><\/a>, cofounder of Cityfi<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to see mayors appointed to key positions, whether it\u2019s Marty Walsh from Boston to the Department of Labor or Pete Buttigieg to the Department of Transportation. When you bring a localized problem-solving approach to the federal level, it creates a huge opportunity to strategize across sectors. For example, Marcia Fudge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development can fund housing projects that are closer to where people work, learn, and access healthcare, and coordinate with the Department of Transportation to connect that housing to public transit. Both agencies can work with the Department of Agriculture to make it easier for people to travel between rural and urban communities and create strong consumer-to-product relationships so farmers are growing the food people need, closer to where they buy it. All of this can cut carbon, strengthen regional economies, and prevent the supply-chain disruptions we\u2019ve seen throughout the pandemic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to seeing Buttigieg address climate change through transportation. In South Bend, Indiana, he implemented \u201ccomplete streets\u201d policies that redesign roads and transportation networks to support more active modes of transportation like walking and cycling, as well as electric vehicles, shuttles, even car-share services. Rethinking roadway safety<\/a> is key to challenging the car-dominated norm and helping people feel more comfortable opting for healthier and greener ways of getting around.<\/p>\n

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\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Blackman<\/strong><\/a>, policy advisor and impact investor<\/p>\n

We talk a lot about reparations for people of color in this country, but less about the non-financial side of that. To repair communities means offering better opportunities. Deb Haaland\u2019s appointment indicates that we\u2019re heading in that direction for Native American communities, and Michael Regan\u2019s appointment to lead the EPA does the same for Black communities. It\u2019s important for me to see people who look like me in leadership positions within the climate fight. And while nominees like John Kerry and Janet Yellen<\/a> aren\u2019t as progressive and exciting, they\u2019re seasoned government officials \u2014 and perhaps that stability is exactly what our nation needs right now.<\/p>\n

But as great as it is to have those experienced leaders, we also need a commission consisting of individuals under 35 to make sure young people are calling the shots. I think this presidential election has shown the power of an educated, active, young electorate that\u2019s saying, \u201cLook, if you\u2019re not talking about equality, the climate crisis, or criminal justice reform, then we\u2019re not voting for you.\u201d They don\u2019t want lip service, they want their demands met. They want job opportunities in green technology and renewable energy. I\u2019d like to see Isabel Guzman of the Small Business Administration and Gina Raimondo of the Department of Commerce come together to build ideas and infrastructure that promote entrepreneurship around the green-energy economy.<\/p>\n

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\"Gabe<\/p>\n

Gabe Vasquez<\/strong><\/a>, conservation advocate and city councilor for Las Cruces, New Mexico<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited about Representative Haaland\u2019s nomination<\/a> to lead the Department of Interior. She\u2019s going to be the first Native American woman to lead that department, which is historic. She has championed the 30 by 30 initiative<\/a>, part of a global effort to protect 30 percent of the world\u2019s lands and waters by 2030. The United States has a key role to play in that effort, and I\u2019d like to see Biden direct his climate team to figure out how to get us there. To truly mitigate the impacts of climate change, we need a strong, fierce leader like Representative Haaland, whom I have seen lead with courage and whom I know will stand up to polluting industries.<\/p>\n

Equally important, Haaland will administer the various bureaus and departments that help govern Indian Country, giving her an opportunity to right many historic wrongs and ensure this country honors its treaties with Native people. I\u2019m expecting Haaland to be one of the most influential and powerful interior secretaries that we\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

Two other appointments I\u2019m excited about are Gina McCarthy \u2014 someone I\u2019ve met and admired in her role as EPA administrator with the Obama administration \u2014 as Biden\u2019s White House climate czar<\/a> and Brenda Mallory to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality<\/a>. That\u2019s a bit of a lesser-known arm of the White House, but it\u2019s incredibly important. It supports the administration in protecting public lands, lowering carbon emissions, and reducing pollution. It also administers and regulates the National Environmental Policy Act, which faced severe rollbacks during the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

I think these picks indicate that Biden is taking his mandate to act on climate seriously. He has selected a diverse, experienced, and passionate group of leaders to take on this challenge. Biden\u2019s approach to climate should be intertwined with racial justice and equitable policymaking \u2014 as grassroots advocates, we\u2019ve been screaming this from the rooftops for so long \u2014 and the roster of appointees that he has brought forward represents some progress in that area. These are the right people to lead these efforts.<\/p>\n