Joe Biden vows to rejoin Paris Climate Pact

Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has pledged that his administration would rejoin the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Biden, 77, has not won the presidential elections yet, but is inching closer to be declared the winner by garnering 253 electoral votes out of the required 270.

His Republican rival and incumbent US President Donald Trump has got 213 electoral votes, according to latest projections released by the US media. On November 4, the US formally withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a decision originally announced three years ago.

"Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it," Biden tweeted on Wednesday night, reflecting his decision to reverse one of the key policies of the Trump administration on day one. The US, under the Obama administration, had acceded to the Paris Agreement in 2016.

It was a signature achievement of the Obama administration. The Paris accord committed the US and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise. Trump argues that the agreement is disadvantageous for the US, while it gives benefits to countries like China, Russia and India. According to him, it could be economically detrimental and cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs by 2025. he decision by the US -- one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases -- to quit the agreement has led to condemnation from environmentalists and expressions of regret from world leaders. Biden has proposed a USD 5 trillion plan to combat climate change.