Not an easy job, being Joe Biden. The new president has an almost infinitely difficult job ahead of him, simply to repair the gratuitous damage that Donald Trump and his wrecking crew of lobbyists and ideologues have spent the last four years inflicting. But wait, there’s also a global pandemic underway, with Americans essentially abandoned by their federal government! And it’s cratered the economy! And he has the burden of huge expectations, especially from groups that have desperate need of the government to help them right now. And he’s got a problematic Senate, many of whose members will do all they can to block him. And a country that’s riven, and a world with far too many autocrats and mini-Trumps.

And hovering above it all, the greatest crisis the world has ever faced: a rapidly heating planet. This was, until fairly recently, hard to focus on: the effects were fairly diffuse at first. But now, it’s hard to miss. In 2020, the world saw record hurricanes, record fires, record temperatures. The overarching question is not “Do we have to act now?” It’s “Have we already waited too long?”

But the pragmatic question is: What is to be done right this minute?

Biden will certainly try to make green energy and building retrofits a part of his COVID-19 economic recovery plan. He’s been pledging $2 trillion towards that end for months now, but given the Senate it seems a longshot: Even a tied upper chamber would mean Democratic conservatives like Joe Manchin of West Virginia would be able to torpedo big plans. Everyone will keep pushing for a Green New Deal, because it’s what needs to happen. And its main backer, the youthful Sunrise Movement, has proved adept at finding a way forward when the road seems blocked; everyone should help them.

Meanwhile, even if big and necessary action is blocked, there’s a good deal to be done via executive action, even beyond the utterly obvious steps like rejoining the Paris accords. Biden has already pledged to end mining and drilling for fossil fuels on public lands, and to stop egregious infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline. Hemming in the fossil fuel industry complicates their lives, which is a necessary part of the path forward—the more hemmed in we can keep them, the more that clean energy will fill the vacuum. So the search is on for other methods of making their lives harder.

Reinstating the various regulations Trump has gutted will help—at the moment, oil and gas drillers don’t even have to account for the release of insanely dangerous gases like methane. And so will eliminating the subsidies that help underwrite the industry. But the most painful changes, from industry’s point of view, will come as Biden appointees at Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission start to rewrite the rules around finance. Simply requiring companies to calculate and report their exposure to climate risk will have some effect; steering banks (beginning with the big government lending agencies like the Export-Import Bank) away from coal and gas and oil will be huge. Likewise with the rules for insurance companies and big asset managers. Indeed, this is a sphere where government action can combine nicely with on-the-ground activism: The Stop the Money Pipeline coalition of many enviro groups has already forced players like Blackrock and Chase to begin revising their portfolios and principles.

And here’s the good news. I listed all the conditions that make Biden’s life so hard, but he’s got some things breaking in his favor too. One is that climate movement itself: It’s grown large enough over the last decade to really rival the power of the fossil fuel guys. Another is technology: Since Biden took over as vice-president in 2008, engineers have dropped the cost of solar and wind by 90 percent, to the point where it’s the cheapest way to generate energy; in many ways, working for clean power is pushing on an open door now. And there’s huge, widespread public support for renewable energy. Increasing government support for solar power polls almost as well among Republicans as Democrats and independents. That’s why Biden was able to get away with—indeed profit from—his frank admission that we have to transition away from the oil industry. He said it, and then he won oil states like Pennsylvania and Colorado. He’s got, therefore, a mandate to act.

That action won’t be easy, and given the cascading series of climate disasters it may be too late. But if we take the consensus science seriously, we’ve got one more decade with high leverage to affect where the global temperature will eventually settle. Biden’s election at least guarantees the United States will be in the game.