In an effort to address the root causes of climate change, President Obama signed his latest executive order that set new goals to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by federal agencies.
In a recent visit to the Energy Department on Thursday to announce the executive order, Obama said, “We’re proving that it is possible to grow our economy robustly while at the same time doing the right thing for our environment and tackling climate change in a serious way. America once again is going to be leading by example.”
His directive orders federal agencies to cut down their emissions by 40 percent compared to the levels that were recorded when he took office in 2008. Apart from this, these agencies will be required to increase their use of renewable sources by 30 percent.
These goals are in line with a climate agreement made with China in November 2014. In that deal, President Obama has stated clearly that the United States will reduce its emission of these greenhouse gases by 26 to 28 percent compared to the level recorded in 2005.
It’s clear that this is Obama’s unilateral effort in his last two years in office to push his agenda for climate change against a strong opposition he faces given that the Republicans control Congress.
While the emission levels by federal agencies being minimal – not even 1 percent of total emissions registered in 2013 – this order, by itself, will not meet those targets.
However, with the U.S government being the largest user of energy, it can influence private companies to step up their efforts so as to cut emissions to desired levels.