Take Action on Climate Change& Environmental Protection Initiatives

Legislation on Environmental Protection

United States of America Executive Administration Environmental Justice Orders and Policies

President Biden and Vice President Harris Administrative Initiative on Climate Change and Environmental Protections The Biden-Harris Initiative reinforces the multilateral cooperation to achieve their 2050 net zero goals and their aligned 2030 nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, alongside promoting a global trajectory consistent with keeping global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach. Creating advanced technologies in clean energy and cutting costs for United States families are a top priority.

Executive Order 14008 Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad - The United States and the world face a profound climate crisis. We have a narrow moment to pursue action at home and abroad in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of that crisis and to seize the opportunity that tackling climate change presents. Domestic action must go hand in hand with United States international leadership, aimed at significantly enhancing global action. Together, we must listen to science and meet the moment. The purpose of this order builds and reaffirms actions the Biden-Harris administration has already taken to place the climate crisis at the forefront of this Nation's foreign policy and national security planning, including submitting the United States instrument of acceptance to rejoin the Paris Agreement. In implementing - and building upon - the Paris Agreement's three overarching objectives (a safe global temperature, increased climate resilience, and financial flows aligned with a pathway toward low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development), the United States will exercise its leadership to promote a significant increase in global climate ambition to meet the climate challenge.
Executive Order 13990 Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis - Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities; promote and protect our public health and the environment; and conserve our national treasures and monuments, places that secure our national memory. where the Federal Government has failed to meet that commitment in the past, it must advance environmental justice. In carrying out this charge, the Federal Government must be guided by the best science and be protected by processes that ensure the integrity of Federal decision-making. It is, therefore, the policy of my Administration to listen to the science; to improve public health and protect our environment; to ensure access to clean air and water; to limit exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides; to hold polluters accountable, including those who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; to bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change; to restore and expand our national treasures and monuments; and to prioritize both environmental justice and the creation of the well-paying union jobs necessary to deliver on this goals.
Executive Order 13985 Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government - Equal Opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, and our diversity is one of our country's greatest strengths. But for too many, the American Dream remains out of reach. Entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism. Our Nation deserves an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the opportunties and challenges we face. It is therefore the policy of my Administration that the Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality. Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government. Because advancing equity requires a systematic approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes, executive departments and agencies (agencies) must recognize and work to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity.
Executive Order 14052 Implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a once-in-a-generation investment in our Nation's infrastructure and competitiveness. It will help rebuild America's roads, bridges, and rails; expand access to clean drinking water; work to ensure access to high-speed internet throughout the Nation; tackle the climate crisis; advance environmental justice; and invest in communities that have too often been left behind. It will accomplish all of this while driving the creation of good-paying union jobs and growing the economy sustainably and equitably for decades to come. Critical to achieving these goals will be the effective implementation of the Act by my Administration, as well as by State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments.
Executive Order 14057 Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability - The Federal Government faces broad exposure to the mounting risks and costs already posed by the climate crisis. In responding to this crisis, we have a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity to create and sustain jobs, including well-paying union jobs; support a just transition to a more sustainable economy for American workers; strengthen America's communities; protect public health; and advance environmental justice. As the single largest land owner, energy consumer, and employer in the Nation, the Federal Government can catalyze private sector investment and expand the economy and American industry by transforming how we build, buy, and manage electricity, vehicles, buildings, and other operations to be clean and sustainable. We also must build on past progress and pursue new strategies to improve the Nation's preparedness and resilience to the effects of a changing climate, including advancing the Federal Government's strategic planning, governance, financial management, and procurement to ensure climate resilient operations. It is therefore the policy of my Administration for the Federal Government to lead by example in order to achieve a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050. Through a whole-of-government approach, we will demonstrate how innovation and environmental stewardship can protect our planet, safeguard Federal investments against the effects of climate change, respond to the needs of all of America's communities, and expand American technologies, industries, and jobs.

United States of America Congressional Bills

FOREST Act of 2021 (S. 2950/ H.R. 5508) This bill restricts certain commodities produced on illegally deforested land from accessing the U.S. market. The FOREST Act is an important legislation that protects the world's vital forest systems that must be protected against international corporations and companies that use products that destroy entire ecosystems.
Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021 (H.R. 2238/ S. 984) This bill sets forth requirements and incentives to reduce the production of a variety of products and materials, including plastics, and increases efforts to collect, recycle, or compost products and materials. The bill makes certain producers of products (e.g., packaging, paper, single-use products, beverage containers, or food service products) fiscally responsible for collecting, managing, and recycling or composting the products after consumer use. In addition, the bill establishes (1) minimum percentages of products that must be reused, recycled, or composted; and (2) an increasing percentage of recycled content that must be contained in beverage containers.
Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263/ S. 1210) This bill revises requirements governing the trade of big cats (i.e., species of lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, or cougar or any hybrid of such species). Specifically, it revises restrictions on the possession and exhibition of big cats, including to restrict direct contact between the public and big cats.
Women and Climate Change Act of 2022 ( S. 3774/ H.R. 260) This bill address climate change and its effects on women and girls. The bill will establish the federal Interagency working Group on women and Climate Change within the Department of State. The bill outlines functions of the working group, including the coordination of agencies' policies and activities relating to combating the effects of climate change on women and improving the government's response to and strategy for climate change.
Global Climate Change Diplomacy Act ( H.R. 2887) This bill requires the Department of State to take specified actions to address global climate change. Specifically, the State Department must establish and staff Climate Change Officer positions, the holders of which shall be assigned to U.S. embassies, consulates, or diplomatic missions. Each officer shall provide climate change mitigation expertise, engage with international entities concerned with addressing climate change, and facilitate U.S. engagement in bilateral and multilateral cooperation on climate change. Each chief of mission in a foreign country must take certain climate change-related actions, including (1) developing a strategy to improve and increase studying, mitigating, and adapting to climate change; and (2) certifying that considerations related to climate change are incorporated in activities, management, and operations of the U.S. embassy or other diplomatic post under the director of the chief of mission. The State Department must also establish a curriculum at its Foreign Service Institute to provide employees with specialized climate change training, and it must ensure that embassy personnel responsible for contracts, grants, or acquisitions are trained on evaluating such agreements for considerations related to sustainability and climate change.

International Climate Change Initiative

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Through and Beyond 2030

(1) Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.

(2) Ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture.

(3) Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all and at all ages.

(4) Ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

(5) Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

(6) Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

(7) Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

(8) Promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.

(9) Building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation.

(10) Reducing inequality within and among countries.

(11) Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

(12) Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

(13) Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

(14) Conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.

(15) Protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests, combating desertification, and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss.

(16) Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

(17) Strengthening the means of policy implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development.

Florida Environmental Justice Legislative Actions

CS/HB 909: Pollution Control Standards & Liability - Provides that Secretary of Environmental Protection has exclusive jurisdiction in setting standards or procedures for evaluating environmental conditions & assessing potential liability for presence of contaminants on certain agricultural lands; prohibits secretary from delegating suck authority to local governmental entity.
CS/HB 7053: Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience - Establishes Statewide office of Resilience within the Executive Office of the Governor (EOG); provides for appointment of Chief Resilience Officer; requires Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to submit report to Governor & Legislature; requires Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop resilience action plan for State Highway System & submit plan & reports to Governor & Legislature; revises projects DEP may fund within Resilient Florida Grant Program; revises vulnerability assessment requirements for noncoastal communities; extends dates by which DEP must complete comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability & sea level rise data set & assessment; requires projects to be ranked in Statewide Flood & Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan; requires Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research & Innovation to provide tidal & storm surge flooding data to certain entities; revises requirements for copies of evaluation certificates that must be submitted to Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM).
CS/HB 1110: Grease Waste Removal and Disposal - requiring grease waster haulers to dispose of grease waste at disposal facilities; prohibiting grease waste haulers from returning grease waste and graywater to grease interceptors and traps and from disposing of grease waste at locations other than disposal facilities; requiring haulers to document grease waste removal and disposal with service manifests; requiring inspecting entities to verify certain contracts and service manifests; authorizing local governments to regulate grease waste removal and disposal, etc.
CS/HB 1475: Cleanup of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances - This bill requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to adopt statewide rules for cleanup target levels for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water, groundwater, & soil under specified conditions; requires legislative ratification of such rules, provides circumstances under which certain governmental entities & water suppliers are not subject to certain actions; provides for tolling of certain statutes of limitations. (This bill last action was 03-04-2022 House Ordered Enrolled)