Following president elect Joe Biden’s election victory, many global leaders have identified and begun considering his strategies and movement to turn the United States (US) into a more sustainable green economy. Such strategies include significant and vast experience that Biden managed to gain over his 50 years politics as politician and should not go unnoticed.

Numerous countries including South Africa signed an initial Paris Agreement in December 2015, which allows for international governments and cities to put their best efforts forward in a global attempt to reduce harmful gas emissions and tackle climate change. Unfortunately, to date only (16) out of 194 countries (8.2%) celebrating the agreement’s fifth year anniversary, have managed to meet their commitments to address climate change.

Noticeably, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the large impact that climate change has on both our health and living environments, especially in poorer areas.  Evidently, parallel action needs to be taken to curb climate change that is prevalent to the distribution of future diseases. One can only ponder if not now, then when?

New research shows that up to 132 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty by climate change by 2030. – World Bank 

According to Forbes (2019), approximately 3.3 million individuals work in the clean energy sector, outnumbering the jobs occupying the fossil fuel industry by 3-1.  It is therefore logical that Biden’s intention to reinstate the US and rejoin the Paris Agreement following a global pandemic should positively cater for further job creation.

President Donald Trump has already fast-tracked numerous fossil fuel projects, which could jeopardize Biden’s ambitions to fully transition to a green economy by 2035. Large industries and the US military could still rely heavily on completed fossil fuel projects for years to come.

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President elect Joe Biden’s sustainability efforts and green economy policies are to be commended and should be adopted sooner, rather than later. Investing in Clean Energy Technologies (CET) remains a priority for Joe Biden and the world. CET will create stable-paying jobs in industries such as solar, wind, water, and battery storage. CET could potentially encourage companies to invest in their employees and recoup the major job losses experienced over the last year. 

An unpopular opinion remains that countries around the world should begin adopting similar US initiatives in order to accelerate new technologies and innovation that will sustain a global green economy.  Optimistically, as renewable prices continue to plummet, making it cheaper to build new technologies, developing countries such as South Africa could follow in the US footsteps very soon.