Two questions have been trending all summer: Why is it so hot outside? And when is the student loan pause ending?

Climate change experts and student loan abolitionists believe the Biden administration can address both questions with one solution: declaring a national emergency for climate change.

A climate emergency called by the president would not only solidify the seriousness of the climate crisis and rising heat, but also make pausing student loans possible again.

“If the government doesn’t take this seriously and make bold changes to fight the climate crisis, we will have more days where we can’t go outside than days where we can, more homes flooded than homes that stay safe and dry, and more inequality and unsafe living conditions each year that nothing changes,” Michele Weindling, electoral director of the Sunrise Movement told Reckon.

Read more: Reckon introduces The Meltdown, a newsletter about responding to our warming world

The stats are alarming. Whether it’s a 60 percent decrease in wildlife populations in 40 years or 2023 poised to become the hottest year in history, the Earth’s climate is changing and people across the world are experiencing the harsh effects of the climate crisis with little to no relief.

Under the National Emergencies Act, enacted in 1976, President Biden could issue a declaration to address and combat climate change. This same act was used in 2020 by former President Trump to declare a national emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. Presidents who invoke the act have the authority to perform actions not normally permitted, like in 2009 when then-President Barack Obama declared a national emergency during an influenza pandemic permitting overcrowded hospitals to move sick patients to satellite facilities or other hospitals.

When a national emergency is issued, many statutes become accessible to the president’s administration, like the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act of 2003 – the act used to pause student loan debt payments for three years up until the recent cut off date of Sept. 1. National emergency orders aren’t permanent and can be rescinded at any time, either by the president that issued the declaration or a future president.

The authority under the act comes from language stating that “as the Secretary of Education deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency,” the administration would have the discretion to pause student loan debt payments again.

“Biden could take immediate action on student debt relief by issuing a climate emergency,” the Debt Collective’s, the nation’s first debtor’s union, Thomas Gokey wrote in a perspectives piece for Reckon.

Gokey went on to explain: “This emergency declaration would allow state and local governments to take immediate action on climate change by limiting fossil fuel production and releasing government funds to be used on renewable energy. It also includes the ability to issue a new student loan payment pause, freeing up resources for millions of Americans grappling with the devastation of climate change.”

Read more: 5 student loan debt myths — busted

With wildfires, power outages, dust storms and the hottest summer in history, declaring heat an emergency could offer relief for millions of Americans suffering under rising temperatures, proponents of this plan argue.

This response would involve the Federal Emergency Management Agency providing relief with power generators, medical care and the resources to repair heat-stressed power grids.

“As long as we are producing and exporting these fossil fuels, the planet will continue to cook,” Jean Su, a senior attorney and energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Grist.

The Sunrise Movement list these powers as some Biden can take under a climate emergency:

• Halting crude oil exports
• Stopping Oil and Gas Drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, Restrict International Trade and Private Investment in Fossil Fuels
• Growing Domestic Manufacturing for Clean Energy and Transportation to Speed the Nationwide Transition Off Fossil Fuels
• Building Resilient and Distributed Renewable Energy Systems in Climate-Vulnerable Communities
• Use the full power of the DPA (Defense Production Act) to expedite the transition to renewable energy

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Borrowers are worried about the future of affording and paying back their student loans. Are you one of them? Share your story and thoughts here with Reckon.