On Climate, Biden Takes On ‘Our Generation’s Moonshot’

To get a handle on how the president’s international climate commitments will need to jibe with his domestic policy agenda, we called Nathaniel Keohane, an economist, former Obama adviser and climate expert.

As vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. led the Obama administration’s “cancer moonshot,” a major public investment in the search for a cure. On Thursday, President Biden announced another Hail Mary — what Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, called “our generation’s moonshot.” This time, the focus is on finding a cure for the entire planet. In a speech yesterday kicking off the White House’s virtual climate summit with world leaders, Mr. Biden set a goal of cutting the United States’ carbon emissions to half their 2005 levels by 2030 — the most ambitious target in history from a U.S. president combating the effects of climate change.