Selin Quoted Discussing Biden Approach to Climate Change
Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations and Associate Dean for Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was quoted in a Climate Wire article discussing climate change and the incoming Biden administration’s approach to the issue.
The article, titled “Biden talked with 14 leaders. He raised climate with 12,” explains that a number world leaders have already discussed climate change with President-elect Biden and how it may become a signature component of his foreign policy. While Biden has promised to take immediate and drastic action on climate change – he has said on day one of his administration that he will invite all members of the Paris accord to Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue – Selin points out that he still has to get Congress on his side in order to pass substantive climate change legislation.
An excerpt:
The 2021 Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will be the first time countries update their emissions goals from their initial 2015 pledge.
Biden could use that same opportunity to demonstrate U.S. commitment by setting aggressive goals. But he will have to balance that imperative against what he can actually expect to accomplish, said Henrik Selin, a Boston University professor of international relations.
‘We’re basically asking President-elect Biden to do something that no other president has ever done in the history of the United States, and that is working successfully with Congress to pass climate change legislation that matters,’ he said.
The full article can be read on Climate Wire‘s website.
Henrik Selin has been at Boston University since 2004 and his research and teaching focuses on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. He is the author of EU and Environmental Governance and Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management. He is also the author and co-author of more than four dozen peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Global Environmental Politics. Learn more about him here.