Irish Examiner View: US climate deal must succeed

Biden’s Build Back Better plan would help point the world towards renewable energy sources and away from fossil-fuel autocrats such as Vladimir Putin.

US president Joe Biden speaks at the Washington Hilton on April 6. Picture: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Hidden away in recent weeks behind the headlines on Ukraine and Covid, one of US president Joe Biden’s central policy planks has become mired in congressional limbo.

Biden’s Build Back Better plan is arguably one of the most important pieces of climate change legislation yet seen anywhere in the world.

However, the huge moral stakes involved in his plan have been beaten to a pulp by a legislative fudge called budget reconciliation, to the point where most people care only about how much it will cost them and not how their children might end up fighting with neighbours over the availability of potable water.

Central to all this has been senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. 

He has previously used his power as an opposing Democratic voice in a Senate controlled on a minority basis by his own party to stall the legislation. But by voluntarily coming back to the table this week with proposals that could potentially save Biden’s vision, his party needs to nail him down.

Biden and Senate leader Chuck Schumer now need to hold Manchin to his word and seal a deal. This would immediately reframe Biden’s presidency and offer a rejoinder to the crisis in Ukraine by pointing the world towards renewable energy sources and away from fossil-fuel autocrats such as Vladimir Putin.

If Biden is to finally convince the many sceptics that the political system is not broken, then he needs this legislation to pass.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB