The United States returns to the Paris Climate Agreement, to the WHO and fires the FCC president

Joe Biden has signed his first executive orders after being sworn in, making him the 46th president of the United States. The inauguration has been as different as expected, due to the pandemic and the latest events on Capitol Hill. And his opening speech, boring although with the keys that perhaps the current moment of the most powerful country in the world needs: “Unity and” hope.

Joe Biden has wasted no time and first executive orders at the head of the White House there are 17 in number. They are promised during the campaign and they reverse some of the policies of the Trump era. In addition to the paralysis of the wall with Mexico; new immigration policies; mandatory masks and social distance; approach to the racial question and social reforms, there are others that they will end up affecting the whole planet.

We review the two most important and a third, the one that most directly affects the technological world, as a result of his appointment and the new majorities in the legislature.

Paris Climate Agreement

U.S will return to assume commitments most advanced planetary measures against climate change, those of the Paris Agreement: “I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the Paris Agreement, made in Paris on December 12, 2015, I hereby accept said Agreement and each article and clause thereof on behalf of the United States of America ».

There is an overwhelming consensus among scientists that we have a critical tipping point in climate change and that they are necessary “Fast and powerful changes”. Human activities and our economic and living system are directly responsible for a good part of the increase in the levels of carbon dioxide and other gases that generate the greenhouse effect and the result of which we see in an increase in temperatures, droughts, fires, loss of coral reefs, a good part of the Arctic sea ice and a decline in phytoplankton, among other disastrous consequences.

The result is that We are loading the planet for decades and we are endangering the future survival of their living beings, in the case of humans, directly affecting their health, their economic system and living conditions. It is very good news that the most powerful country on the planet (and one of the most polluting) is once again accepting the commitments of the Paris Agreement.

who

U.S will return as a member of the World Health Organization. And it was obligatory. Some of the decisions of this body can be debated and questioned, but one cannot be outside of it, if not inside to improve it because a planetary body of this type is essential for global health management.

Joe Biden said at the time that “Americans are safer when America is committed to global health. This will not protect American lives or interests, it leaves Americans sick and America alone. Promised reverse Trump’s decision and has been one of the first executive orders.

The United States is the first contributor to the WHO, contributing around $ 900 million to the 2018-2019 budget, which was a fifth of the total. Like the return to the Paris Agreement, the return to the WHO in the midst of the global health emergency due to COVID is other good news.

FCC and Ajit Pai

“The gigantic asshole Ajit Pai is officially gone”, title on motherboard an article where they mercilessly “skin” the FCC president up to now and confirm his departure from a body where he has spent four years as president, eight years as a commissioner and twelve years as an employee. The agency, the government regulator of everything related to telecommunications in the United States, is the most important of its kind in the world and affects the entire technology industry.

Not only does it certify products before they are marketed, but it also pre-approves such important standards as 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and all radio waves. And much more. The departure of Ajit Pai, considered “A dangerous element under Trump’s command”, closes the most tumultuous period in the history of a body that should be neutral and technical, destined for public service, but which has not done its job.

Criticisms of Pai include turning the FCC into a partisan body; dismantle the rules enacted by the Obama administration to protect the Net Neutrality as a fundamental principle to safeguard a free, open and non-discriminatory Internet; be at the service of large operators penalizing users; repression in social networks; support for the trade war strategy against China (no evidence) and even shenanigans like the mega merger between Sinclair and Tribune Media.

The victory of Biden and the new majorities in the legislature allow Pai to disappear, although it remains to be seen how many and how his policies are reversed under the new Democratic majority of the FCC and the policies that Joe Biden promotes for the technology industry. And the communications regulator’s ability to stay independent (as it should be) in a decision-making that also ends up affecting the entire planet.