During his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden declared climate change the “number one issue facing humanity” and vowed a national transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy that he said would create millions of jobs.

Now the question is — will he follow through?

While his plan has the right “to do” items, and he will have a mostly cooperative House majority, how can he make progress given the Senate will possibly remain in GOP hands?

For starters, Biden can sign a series of executive orders to achieve a number of important objectives, including 100% clean energy. He could declare a climate emergency, stop all new fossil fuel mining and drilling leases, and strengthen automobile efficiency and power plant emission standards initiated during Obama’s tenure.

The best climate science says that we have perhaps 10 years left to prevent catastrophic damage, including extreme heat, floods, drought and poverty.

Candidate Biden seemed to understand both the urgency and the opportunity in the climate crisis. Now it is up to President Biden to deliver. Much is at stake.

David Hastings is a climate scientist and retired professor of oceanography at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.