Of the many fronts the Biden administration is diverging from its predecessor, the most striking — and likely most consequential — is on climate. For four years under former president Donald Trump, the federal government of the United States cut itself adrift from the broad international consensus. It turned its back on the Paris climate accords, undermined coordination on climate efforts at major summits, boosted the fossil fuel industry and championed narrow national interests in the face of what the U.S.’s own intelligence community sees as a looming global catastrophe.

President Biden immediately shifted course. He restored American participation in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, while recognizing that the world’s biggest economies are already lagging behind in the face of an escalating climate emergency. He issued executive orders mobilizing agencies across the federal government to focus on tackling climate change and has proposed a multitrillion dollar infrastructure and jobs plan that would accelerate the country’s transition to a greener economy.

Those talks ended as the Biden administration prepares for a major leaders summit on climate starting Thursday, where it hopes to catalyze new international action. “Ahead of that gathering, the Biden administration has said it will unveil a more aggressive plan to cut U.S. emissions — probably around 50 percent by the end of the decade, compared with 2005 levels,” my colleagues reported. “That would basically double the goal first put forth by President Barack Obama as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.”