The US Climate Agenda as an Opportunity for American Society’s Socio-Political Transformation

Abstract

The article’s introduction includes a justification of the climate policy’s dependence and socioeconomic transformation in American society. The research’s purpose is to substantiate that the climate crisis is a complex infrastructural issue that requires solutions from all institutions and spheres of American society to achieve sustainable development and leadership. The article’s materials consist of international treaties, laws, and protocols that are adopted by the US Congress, the US government’s orders and plans, US politicians’ speeches and correspondence, research articles and monographs by famous scientists from various countries, the political practice’s analysis of the presidential administration of J. Biden in the conditions of fulfilling the obligations assumed by the United States under the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as new social and economic problems related to the hydrocarbons’ use. The article analyzes the Environmental Protection Agency’s activities and the supporters’ and opponents’ actions regarding the use of fossil fuels. The methodology is based on the principles of scientific historical research; a rationalistic approach is used as a methodological approach, and two special historical methods are used as research methods: systemic and genetic. The study’s results were updated plans and actions by the American government to address the climate agenda for the 2016–2020 period. As a result, the article’s author comes to several conclusions, which are that the struggle for a fair energy transition during the 2016–2022 period made American society more polarized and divided taken the measures according to ideas and actions. The so-called BIPOC community began to play a special role in this movement as the main force in a period of change and as a hope for the creation of a more fair society in America. The Inflation Reduction Act (2022) created the conditions for American society’s consolidation. The changes should be expected in 2023 as visible trends in socio-political modernization after the adoption of this law: for example, in healthcare, greater availability of medicines and lower prices for them, especially for insulin-dependent people; greater availability for more citizens in the health insurance sphere; reduction of citizens’ costs for electricity and energy efficiency of household appliances; reduction of taxes for low- and medium-income citizens; a tangible reduction in harmful pollution from fossil fuels; and the expected reduction in cancer diseases among Americans.