The United States officially rejoined the landmark international accord to limit global warming known as the Paris Agreement on Friday.
Hours after he was sworn-in on January 20, President Joe Biden signed an executive order beginning the 30-day process for the U.S. to reenter the global pact.
The U.S. had officially exited the agreement late last year on former President Donald Trump's orders, becoming the first and only country to formally pull out of the deal since it was adopted in 2015.
Rejoining the Paris Agreement is a significant step by the Biden administration to reverse the climate policies of the last four years, during which Trump rolled back or loosened many of the country's bedrock environmental policies and regulations.
On Twitter Friday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken called it "a good day in our fight against the climate crisis" and promised that the U.S. would "waste no time in engaging our partners around the world to build our global resilience."
"Now, as momentous as our joining the Agreement was in 2016 - and as momentous as our rejoining is today - what we do in the coming weeks, months, and years is even more important," Blinken added in a statement.
Under the agreement, countries are expected to enhance their commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions every five years. The goals of the global pact are to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, CNN reported.
