Biden’s Pseudo-Declaration of Emergency Frustrates Climate Activists

Susan Walsh/AP

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Joe Biden has said that he has “practically” declared a national emergency on the climate crisis, despite not actually taking that step, vexing climate campaigners.
“I’ve already done that,” Biden said when asked if he intends to declare a climate emergency in a Weather Channel interview aired on Wednesday.
He went on to say that under his leadership, the US has protected more land, rejoined the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, and “passed the $368 billon climate control facility”—a reference to the $368 billion in climate and clean energy spending included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act spending bill.
Asked to clarify if he has declared a national climate emergency, Biden said: “Practically speaking, yes.”
Yet the White House has not yet announced such a declaration, despite years of pressure from climate-focused advocates and lawmakers. Doing so would unlock a host of new powers for the president, including the ability to speed the energy transition and block fossil fuel projects without congressional approval.
Biden’s statement outraged climate activists, who noted that it came amid a summer of record-breaking extreme weather events. “This summer, we experienced the hottest days in the past 125,000 years, wildfire smoke has filled the lungs of people across the country, people are losing their homes and literally jumping into the ocean to avoid flames,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement, said in a statement.
Biden has referred to the climate crisis as an emergency. But in addition to failing to make an official declaration under the National Emergencies Act, he has overseen the expansion of planet-heating fossil fuels, noted Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“Practically speaking, Biden has devastated communities and wildlife by backing disastrous carbon bombs from Alaska to Appalachia,” she said.

But it’s not too late for Biden to take that step, said Prakash: “It’s a no-brainer to declare a climate emergency—and if President Biden said we already have, then why not do it now?”