On Wednesday, President Joe Biden is set to temporarily suspend all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands pending an administrative review, part of an early blitz of executive orders seeking to undo former President Donald Trump s denialist legacy on climate.

Although the move is a first step toward Bidens campaign promise to ban new drilling leases, it is more of a political statement, experts say, than a policy change. The pause will have little immediate effect on an industry that stockpiled federal leases and permits to drill on public lands and waters in the final weeks of the Trump administration.

This really is just about symbolism, said Andrew Logan, the oil and gas program director at Ceres, an investor-focused climate nonprofit. This will not significantly impact the direction of the U.S. energy industry in the short term.

That didnt temper criticism from oil and gas allies particularly bigger trade organizations, which pilloried the order as an attack on the industry.

Still, activists hope it is just a first step toward a total ban on new leases, and part of a more comprehensive plan to keep global temperatures from surging past 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages by rapidly phasing out fossil fuel production.

A pause on drilling and fracking is good news, but only if it is followed by a strong plan to permanently ban all dirty energy extraction on public lands, Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of the left-leaning group Food & Water Watch, said in a statement. The simple truth is that we need to stop drilling and fracking everywhere, as soon as possible.