The United States on Friday officially returned to the Paris climate accord, with President Joe Biden’s administration vowing to make the environmental battle a top priority.
Exactly one month after Biden took office and immediately moved to rejoin, the world’s largest economy and second largest carbon emitter was formally back in the 2015 accord aimed at confronting the planet’s dangerously rising temperatures.
The re-entry of the United States means that the Paris accord again includes virtually every country after Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump made the United States the sole outlier.
“Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be ‘add-ons’ in our foreign policy discussions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement saluting the return of the United States.
“Addressing the real threats from climate change and listening to our scientists is at the center of our domestic and foreign policy priorities. It is vital in our discussions of national security,…