Advancing Our Work to Combat Climate Change

The facts and the trends are clear — climate change is real and it’s affecting the health and well-being of Americans and citizens across the globe.

That’s why, at EPA, we aren’t slowing down our efforts to protect public health and the environment. It’s why President Obama has made climate change a top priority. And it’s why this Administration has done more than any other in history to tackle this critical issue.

In just the past month, we’ve made enormous, historic strides that are helping us fight climate change in tangible, meaningful ways.

The President understands this is not a challenge that any one country can confront alone.

Last December in Paris, he got the global community on board to announce a universal agreement to act on climate.

Under the Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries came together and pledged to limit global warming by 2 degrees Celsius at most and to pursue efforts to keep it below 1.5 degrees.

Science tells us these levels will help prevent some of the most devastating impacts of climate change, including more frequent and extreme droughts, storms, fires, and floods, as well as catastrophic sea level rise.

Back in September, the U.S. and China officially joined the Paris Agreement. Three weeks ago, the European Union formally joined. And next month, the agreement will enter into force.

As President Obama said, this alone “will not solve the climate crisis.” But it is, without a doubt, a turning point for our planet.

Earlier this month in Rwanda, the Administration reached another critical milestone in the fight against climate change by charting a historic path for a phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs.

EPA and our partners at the Department of State, including Secretary John Kerry, led a strong United States delegation that was successful in joining together nearly every nation on Earth to curb the use of these damaging greenhouse gases.

Countries, including the United States, have long used HFCs to meet their refrigeration and air conditioning needs. These greenhouse gases can have warming impacts hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. In a nutshell, these HFCs cool our homes and chill our food, but they are turning up the temperature of our planet.

HFCs are so powerfully damaging to our climate that by 2050 this phase-down will cut their use by the equivalent of more than 70 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s equivalent to 10 years of emissions from more than 2,000 coal fired power plants.

And over the next several years, HFC use is expected to not only grow — but multiply. Their emissions are increasing by 10 to 15 percent on an annual basis globally. By reaching an agreement this month, world leaders took a giant leap forward in curtailing the production of HFCs.

I am so proud of EPA’s Montreal Protocol team and our partners at the Department of State. Together, we brought this agreement over the finish line in a way that we will all look back on with great pride.

And, joined by our partners in the larger environmental and public health community, we welcomed another international deal that curbs the effects of airplane emissions.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreement to reduce GHGs from aircraft is an important step toward limiting emissions globally. It’s also a vital step forward for the transportation sector itself.

Clearly, this has been quite a month for President Obama and the precious planet we call home. At EPA, we are proud to stand with the President and other members of the federal family.

Over the next several months, our momentum will continue. Together, we are taking real action to protect the health of our families, our communities, and future generations. That’s #EPAForward.