The election of Joe Biden as president of the United States has prompted the Isle of Man Green Party to renew its call for an international climate change agreement to be extended to the Isle of Man.

The party welcomed the news that Joe Biden’s first action within hours of his inauguration as president was to return the USA to the Paris Agreement.

Coming out of the warmest year on record in 2020, Joe Biden got straight to work as president citing the need for the United States to respond to a ’climate in crisis’.

Green Party leader Andrew Langan-Newton said: ’In view of the matter of hours it took Joe Biden to act on climate change, isn’t it time that the Isle of Man as an Unesco Biosphere nation followed the USA’s lead in joining the Paris Agreement?’

The previous global agreement on climate change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol was extended to the Isle of Man in 2006.

The Isle of Man Green Party wrote to Chief Minister Howard Quayle in May 2019 asking him to support the global effort to tackle climate change by requesting that the UK’s ratification of the Paris Agreement is extended to the Isle of Man.

The response of government spokesperson at the time was: ’The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is currently giving careful consideration to the possibility of requesting the UK extend the Paris Agreement to the Isle of Man for ratification.’

The Green Party says it has not received any update from the government to indicate that it would join the global pledge in the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement was signed on December 12, 2015. It is an international agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low-carbon future.

Since 2015, 195 countries have signed the Paris Agreement, including small states such as the Cook Islands (population 17,459), San Marino (population 33,860) and St Kitts and Nevis (population 52,834).