From the Amazon rainforest, Joe Biden declares nobody can reverse U.S. progress on clean energy

President Biden visits the Amazon, highlighting climate change and conservation efforts, contrasting with Trump's stance on environmental issues.

Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday (November 17, 2024) that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Mr. Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change.

Mr. Biden, the first sitting U.S. president to visit the world’s largest tropical rainforest, saw up close the ravages of deforestation. The Amazon, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change. But development is rapidly depleting the long-verdant region, where rivers have been running dry.

Flanked by giant ferns in the forest, Mr. Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency — he’s pushed for cleaner air, water and energy and achieved legislation that steered unprecedented federal spending to the fight against global warming.

But he's about to hand off to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change, which he's cast as a “hoax."

Trump has pledged to again pull out of the Paris agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, and he says he'll rescind unspent money in energy efficiency legislation.

“It’s true, some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America,” Mr. Biden said from a podium set up on a sandy forest bed. “But nobody, nobody can reverse it, nobody — not when so many people, regardless of party or politics, are enjoying its benefits.”

The question now, he said, is “which government will stand in the way and which will seize the enormous opportunity.”