NPR News - Environment

President Biden has made climate change a focus of his first week in office. But it could take years before many of the executive actions he's highlighted to tackle the issue have a noticeable impact.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Gina McCarthy, climate adviser to the White House, about several executive actions to end oil and gas drilling on federal land that President Biden is signing.

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm says "good-paying jobs" can help zero out U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But some Republicans are skeptical they can help fossil fuel workers.

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The move is one of his more controversial campaign promises, and industry groups say they will sue. But it won't have much immediate impact on driving down climate-warming emissions.

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President Biden is expected to sign on Wednesday an order pausing oil and gas drilling on federal land. It's one of several climate-focused executive actions he will make official.

The U.S. is rejoining the world's largest effort to address climate change: the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Climate change is one of the Biden administration's top priorities.

Canadian officials say they're disappointed that President Biden revoked the Keystone XL Pipeline permit — but they're also looking forward to working with the new administration on climate change.

Addressing climate change is one of the Biden administration's top priorities. NPR looks at President Biden's pledge to stop new oil and gas leasing on public lands and the challenges he might face.

"For the first time in history, nuclear weapons are going to be illegal in international law," says Elayne Whyte, who oversaw the treaty's creation.

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Nashua, N.H., expects to be a destination for people migrating away from the coasts and toward lower temperatures. Officials say a pandemic influx has shown the need to plan for that growth.

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President Biden's plan to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is welcome news to Native American governments and activists in Montana — but disappointing to many elected officials.

In rich countries, every sector of the economy reduced its contribution to climate change last year — with one big gas-guzzling exception.

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President Biden's wave of executive actions includes an order to reexamine one controversial, but widely used, pesticide called chlorpyrifos. The Trump administration kept it on the market.

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President Biden signed an executive order to have the country reenter the Paris Climate Agreement, less than four months after formally withdrawing.

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President Biden has set his sights on more than 100 Trump administration environmental rollbacks as well as plans to rejoin the international climate accord.

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Some Massachusetts voters hope that the Biden administration will do better on protecting the environment and managing the pandemic. But some say they fear President Biden may be too moderate.

This likely means the end of the $8 billion pipeline, a years-long project that would have carried oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to the American Gulf Coast.

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Trump called climate change a hoax. Biden calls it an existential threat. Washington Post journalist Juliet Eilperin talks about how Biden might reverse some of his predecessor's policies.

As climate impacts worsen, some people are moving to other parts of the country that they hope won't suffer as much. Town planners in New Hampshire are already preparing for a possible influx.

Pipeliners Local 798, which represents thousands of workers on projects across the country, has a history of racism and faces new allegations it discriminated against Black members.

(Image credit: Nate Hegyi/Yellowstone Public Radio)