Biden declares action on climate
Vows steep cuts to emissions by end of decade at summit
President vows steep cuts to global warming emissions by end of decade at summit.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday moved to put four years of official climate denial behind the United States, declaring that America would cut its global warming emissions at least in half by the end of the decade.
Addressing 40 heads of state at the start of a virtual two-day summit meeting to prove the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate agreement, which former President Donald Trump abandoned, Biden sought to galvanize other countries to take more aggressive steps. He cast the challenge of avoiding catastrophic warming as an economic opportunity for America and the world.
The entire world faces “a moment of peril” but also “a moment of opportunity,” Biden declared.
“The signs are unmistakable,” he said. “The science is undeniable. The cost of inaction keeps mounting.”
In rapid succession, Japan, Canada, Britain and the European Union committed to steeper cuts. But China, India and Russia made no new emissions promises, and even Biden’s commitment to cut U.S. greenhouse gases 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade will be extraordinarily difficult to meet, economically and politically.
Energy experts said it would require a dramatic overhaul of U.S. society, including the virtual elimination of coal for electricity and replacing millions of gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles.
And the Biden administration’s ambitions cut to the heart of its toughest diplomatic challenge: Dealing with China. While the United States is the largest emitter in history, China’s emissions are currently the largest, which only add to the issues that have Republicans and Democrats seething at Beijing.
Republicans immediately questioned why Americans should sacrifice when Chinese coal pollution is likely to swamp any gains from U.S. emissions cuts, at least in the near term.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said China has “shamelessly” kept emitting more. “Their share of greenhouse gas emissions are now nearly double that of the United States,” he said.
The stakes are enormous, for Biden and for the planet. If nations fail to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the world economy will suffer $23 trillion in losses by midcentury from natural disasters and the spread of disease, according to a report from Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest providers of insurance to other insurance companies.
American credibility has been battered by years of joining and then abandoning efforts to tackle climate change; if it does not meet its new goals, or if it reverses course once again with a new administration, trust in the United States would plunge still further.
The latest pledge puts the United States almost on par with Europe, but still behind Britain. On climate finance, the Biden administration promised to double its contribution to help developing countries address climate change, to an estimated $5.7 billion by 2024. But, like many of Biden’s promises, that would require the approval of Congress.
Republicans denounced the new emissions target as illegal and unrealistic. Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, called it a “radical” plan and a “domestic and foreign policy blunder of almost unfathomable proportions.”
To overcome such domestic opposition, Biden will have to bring the world along, especially China. Several major industrialized nations did announce aggressive new goals.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan raised his country’s target for cutting emissions to 46% from 2013 levels by the end of the decade, up from 26%, and in a last-minute surprise said the country would “continue to try for an even higher cut” of 50%. The Biden administration had exerted strong pressure on Japan to announce a 50% goal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada raised his country’s goal to a cut of 40% to 45% from 2005 levels, up from 30%. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea announced an end to public finance for coal-fired power plants overseas. Even President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, an ally of Trump’s who has denied the science of climate change in the past, vowed to end illegal deforestation by 2030 despite having overseen the sharpest rise in the destruction of the Amazon in 12 years.
President Xi Jinping did pledge that China would “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” in the next five years and phase it down in the following five years. That could prove significant, since China is, by far, the world’s largest coal consumer and is continuing to expand its fleet of coalfired power plants. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Xi also repeated his pledge from last year to draw down carbon emissions to net zero by 2060. In a pointed reminder to his host, he said industrialized nations had a responsibility to act faster to cut emissions.
But the United States cannot tame climate change alone, Biden stressed, noting that America accounts for about 15% of global emissions. “All of us, and particularly those of us that represent the world’s largest economies, we have to step up,” Biden said.