AP sources: President Joe Biden to pledge halving greenhouse gases by 2030
said Tuesday after learning of Biden’s plans. “That target would put us roughly in line with the most ambitious emissions reductions targets” projected by scientists and environmentalists.
Cobb, like other experts, said details of Biden’s strategy will be crucial, “because those details will likely determine whether this ambitious new goal can be translated into policy. The clock is ticking fast, environmentally and politically.”
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said the 50% goal “is precisely what is needed ... an actionable goal within the next decade that puts us on the path toward limiting warming below a catastrophic 1.5 degrees Celsius’’ globally.
The climate summit that Biden is hosting is among his first international actions since the United States officially returned to the Paris accord. The U.S. withdrawal from the global pact under former President Donald Trump was part of Trump’s effort to step away from global allegiances in general and his oft-stated but false view that global warming was a hoax or at least an overstated claim by the world’s scientists.
Biden has made action on climate change a centerpiece of his presidency. He has also paused new oil and gas drilling on federal lands and proposed a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan that would remake the U.S. power grid and add 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles, among other actions intended to sharply cut fossil fuel pollution that contributes to global warming.
The summit is “the starting gun for climate diplomacy” after a four-year “hiatus” under Trump, said Kate Larsen, a former White House adviser who helped develop President Barack Obama’s climate action plan. She is now a director at the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, Biden’s top climate envoy, has been pressing global leaders, including his counterpart in China, for commitments and alliances on climate efforts.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-mass., who reintroduced the Green New Deal on Tuesday with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, D-N.Y., said the 50% target was appropriate to meet the scope and scale of the climate crisis.
“The United States must be an undeniable global leader in climate action,’’ Markey said. “We cannot preach temperance from a barstool and not pay our fair share when approximately 40% of all the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is red, white and blue.’’
A 50% reduction by 2030 is “technically feasible and well within our reach,’’ Markey added. “We can and should fight to pass legislation and deploy funding that will allow us to exceed that target.’’