US at climate change summit
AMSTERDAM: The United States will mark its return to the global fight against climate change today by joining high level talks about ways to better protect people and economies from the effects of global warming already taking place.
Less than a week after President Joe Biden announced the return of the US to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, his special climate envoy, John Kerry, will join Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Han Zheng, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders at the Climate Adaptation Summit.
The online event, hosted by the Netherlands, aims to set out plans for dealing with climate change in the period until 2030.
Ahead of the summit, more than 3000 scientists pressed leaders to take action.
‘‘Our fastwarming world is already experiencing major disruptions from more intense droughts, fires, heat waves, floods, destructive tropical cyclones and other extreme events,’’ the scientists, including five Nobel laureates, said.
‘‘Unless we step up and adapt now, the results will be increasing poverty, water shortages, agricultural losses and soaring levels of migration with an enormous toll on human life.’’
Climate change could depress global food production by up to 30%, while rising seas and greater storms could force hundreds of millions in coastal cities out of their homes, summit organiser the Global Centre on Adaptation said.
No binding commitments will be made at the summit, but leaders will try to set an action agenda to create a climate resilient planet by the end of the decade. — Reuters