Biden swings focus of climate effort from US to world

GLASGOW: President Joe Biden was swinging the focus of his battle for fast, concerted action against global warming from the US Congress to the world on Monday, scolding rival China on climate and appealing to other leaders at a UN summit to commit to the kind of big climate measures that he is still working to nail down at home.

Speaking to world leaders at the climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden planned to tote up his not-yet year-old administration’s climate efforts and announce new climate initiatives, including billions of dollars in hoped-for legislation to help poorer communities abroad deal with climate damage already under way.

Wading back into hands-on diplomacy with allies overseas this week after the withdrawal of the Trump administration, Biden on the eve of his climate summit arrival touted “the power of America showing up”. Air Force One touched down on Monday morning in grey Glasgow for the summit, on the heels of separate Group of 20 talks in Rome over the weekend.

The Glasgow summit is often billed as essential to putting the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord into action.

But Biden and his administration face obstacles in prodding the US and other nations to act fast enough on climate, abroad as at home. In the runup to the summit, the administration has tried hard to temper expectations that two weeks of talks involving more than 100 world leaders will produce major breakthroughs on cutting climate-damaging emissions.

Rather than a quick fix, “Glasgow is the beginning of this decade race, if you will,” Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, told reporters on Sunday.

As the summit opens, the US is still struggling to get some of the world’s biggest climate polluters - China, Russia and India - to join the US and its allies in stronger pledges to burn far less coal, gas and oil and to move to cleaner energy.

Global methane pledge signatories rise to 80

The Global Methane Pledge, a commitment to cut emissions of one of the most potent greenhouse gases by 30% by the end of the decade, has now signed up around 80 nations, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s an increase of 20 from last week. Key countries that still haven’t said they will join include Russia, China and Brazil - some of the world’s biggest methane emitters.