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Scientists: US Climate Law Likely to Reduce Warming

时间:2022-09-22 02:28:58

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Scientists: US Climate Law Likely to Reduce Warming

American President Joe Biden has signed into law a major bill on climate change and healthcare. The new law includes $375 billion in spending to help clean energy efforts over the next 10 years.

The spending is much smaller than first proposed. But Biden and his Democratic Party lawmakers said the law "would represent the single biggest climate investment in U.S. history, by far." They said the investment would put the country on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions2 by 40 percent by 2030.

What's in the law?

For some Americans, that means a tax credit of $4,000 to buy a used electric vehicle and up to $7,500 for a new one. The credit is good for electric vehicles that are manufactured in the U.S. or have parts made in the country. There are also tax breaks for renewable energy investments in wind and solar.

For businesses, the law includes $60 billion for a clean energy manufacturing tax credit and $30 billion for a production tax credit for wind and solar. It is designed to support the industries that help the country move away from fossil fuels.

The law also gives tax credits for nuclear power and carbon capture technology that oil companies have invested millions of dollars to develop. It would set a new fee on excess methane3 emissions from oil and gas drilling while permitting more exploration for oil and gas on federal lands and waters.

Western states including Arizona, Nevada and Colorado would receive $4 billion to deal with extremely dry weather conditions and conservation efforts in the Colorado River. Nearly 40 million Americans depend on the river for drinking water.

Climate scientists' study

The group Climate Action Tracker measures government climate action against the Paris climate agreement. It says the United States still is not doing enough to help the world stay within another few tenths of a degree of warming. It rates the new spending as "insufficient4."

Bill Hare is the director of Climate Analytics which puts out the tracker. "This is the biggest thing to happen to the U.S. on climate policy," he said. "When you think back over the last decades, you know, not wanting to be impolite, there's a lot of talk, but not much action."

This is action, he said. Not as much as Europe, and Americans still release two times as much heat-trapping gases per person as Europeans, Hare added.

The U.S. has also released more heat-trapping gas into the air than any other nation.

Before the U.S. climate law, Climate Action Tracker calculated that the world would warm up 3 to 4 degrees Celsius5 above pre-industrial times. The U.S. actions, if followed by other countries, would lead to only 2 to 3 degrees Celsius of warming.

That would still fall short of the international goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. And the world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century.

Hare said officials from Chile and a few Southeast Asian countries, which he would not name, told him this summer that they were waiting for the U.S. before setting their own "policies and targets."

And China, in Hare's words, "won't say this out loud, but I think [they] will see the U.S. move as something they need to match."

Scientists at the Climate Action Tracker calculated that without any other new climate policies, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 will shrink to 26 to 42 percent below 2005 levels.

Other researchers and scientists agreed with the Climate Action Tracker estimates.

"The contributions from the U.S. to greenhouse gas emissions are huge," said Princeton University climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi. "So reducing that is definitely going to have a global impact."

Samantha Gross is the director of climate and energy at the Brookings Institution. She called the new law a down payment on U.S. emission1 reductions.

"Now that this is done, the U.S. can celebrate a little, then focus on implementation6 and what needs to happen next," Gross said.

Words in This Story

greenhouse gas - n. gas that cause the warming of the earth's atmosphere

emission - n. the act of producing or sending energy or gas

excess - adj. more than usual

insufficient - adj. not having enough of what is needed

calculate - v. to find a number by using mathematical process

decade - n. a ten-year period

match - v. to do something that is equal

contribution - n. something that is done to cause something to happen

impact - n. major or powerful influence or effect

focus - v. to direct attention to something

implementation - n. act of making something active or effective


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 emission vjnz4     
n.发出物,散发物;发出,散发
参考例句:
  • Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施,降低污染物排放总量。
  • Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后,指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。
2 emissions 1a87f8769eb755734e056efecb5e2da9     
排放物( emission的名词复数 ); 散发物(尤指气体)
参考例句:
  • Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
  • Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。
3 methane t1Eyx     
n.甲烷,沼气
参考例句:
  • The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
  • Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。
4 insufficient L5vxu     
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的
参考例句:
  • There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
  • In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代,科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。
5 Celsius AXRzl     
adj.摄氏温度计的,摄氏的
参考例句:
  • The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
  • The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。
6 implementation 2awxV     
n.实施,贯彻
参考例句:
  • Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

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