Newly elected US President Joe Biden is set to rejoin the Paris climate accord soon after he took oath as the 46th President on Wednesday. He also signed a series of executive orders to launch his administration and a mask mandate for all federal buildings.
The orders included keeping the United States in the World Health Organization, ending the ban on entries from mostly Muslim-majority countries, bolstering environmental protections and strengthening the fight against Covid-19.
Also among the directives was a halt to construction of the wall on the US-Mexico border, and efforts to expand diversity and equality for minority groups in the federal government.
According to a report of NDTV, the orders were aimed at reversing decisions by his predecessor Donald Trump and setting a clear policy path for Biden's new administration, just hours after he was sworn in as president.
"Some of things we are going to be doing are going to be bold," he said in the Oval Office.
"We are going to combat climate change in a way we have not done so far," Biden said of returning to the Paris agreement, a treaty signed by most nations in 2016 to limit global warming.
He said his actions on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed 400,000 American lives, would help change the course of the crisis.
His return to the Paris Agreement, which the United States joined Barack Obama as president and Biden vice president, was lauded by other leaders.