Blueprint Of Ocean Climate Solutions Is At Biden’s Fingertips

By Maggie Peacock, Branch Out

There is no denying that we live on a blue world, as the oceans cover over 70% of our planet. Everything we breathe, do, pollute, degrade and dismantle is directly tied to the ocean, and ultimately, us. While the U.S. Congress recently passed its first major climate legislation with the Inflation Reduction Act, leading scientists and policy experts have already handed Biden the blueprint for working with our oceans to fight climate change.

“The ocean is already a climate solution for us,” states ocean-climate policy expert Jean Flemma, who also contributed to the Blueprint for Ocean Climate Action. “It’s been absorbing our greenhouse gas emissions, along with the heat being generated from those emissions, for all of industrial time.” Essentially, if it wasn’t for the ocean, the climate impacts we’re already seeing today would be incredibly worse.

Congress Passes Climate Bill

As President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law this past week, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer stated, “To the tens of millions of young Americans who have spent years marching, rallying, and demanding that Congress act on climate change, this bill is for you.”

The Inflation Reduction Act is historic in the sense that it is the largest spending package passed in the U.S. that addresses the global climate crisis, with approximately $406 billion designated for alternative energy and climate change programs over the next ten years. It is estimated that the clean energy projects included in the package will reduce emissions by up to 40% by 2030. With Biden promising to reduce our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030, this ten-year plan is meant to kickstart the United States reaching its goals.