Executive Order 14008-Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad

On January 27, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008, directing the federal government to take bold action to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad. The order was one of the most sweeping climate executive actions in American history, touching nearly every aspect of federal government policy. Key provisions included pausing new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters pending a review, directing all federal agencies to make climate considerations central to their planning and decision-making, committing to conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, and establishing a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy.

The order directed the creation of a National Climate Task Force to coordinate whole-of-government climate action, established an environmental justice advisory council, and committed to achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. It directed federal agencies to review and revise hundreds of regulations and policies that had been weakened or rescinded in the preceding years, and it revoked several Trump administration executive orders that had promoted fossil fuel development and reduced environmental protections.

This executive order set the framework for the Biden administration's entire domestic climate agenda and signaled the most significant federal commitment to climate action in U.S. history. It was issued simultaneously with Biden's re-entry into the Paris Agreement and together these actions represented a fundamental reversal of U.S. climate policy, placing the United States back at the center of global climate diplomacy and committing the federal government to a whole-of-government approach to the climate emergency.

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