BIDEN TO HALVE US EMISSIONS BY 2030
US TARGETS 50% REDUCTION OVER 2005 LEVELS AND DOUBLES FUNDING FOR POOR COUNTRIES
US President began virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders by pledging to halve CO2 emissions from 2005 levels and double annual public climate finance to developing countries by 2024. Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid will address the summit today
US President Joe Biden yesterday opened his the two-day virtual Leaders Summit on Climate by declaring that America “has resolved to take action” on climate change.
In a show of renewed resolve after four years of the Trump administration’s unvarnished climate denial, Biden formally pledged that the US would cut its emissions at least in half from 2005 levels by 2030.
His administration also announced that it intends to double by 2024 the amount of money it offers to help developing countries, compared with what the US spent annually in the second half of the Obama administration.
Leading by example
Biden unveiled the goal to cut emissions by 50-52 per cent from 2005 levels as the summit, attended virtually by leaders of 40 countries, including big emitters China, India and Russia. kicked off on Earth Day.
The US, the world’s secondleading emitter after China, seeks to reclaim global leadership in the fight against global warming after Trump withdrew the country from international efforts to cut emissions.
“This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis,” Biden said.
Japan, Canada also raise emissions cut targets
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the new US goal “game changing” as two other countries made new pledges.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga raised Japan’s target for cutting emissions to 46 per cent by 2030, up from 26 per cent. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised his country’s goal to a cut of 40-45 per cent by 2030 below 2005 levels, up from 30 per cent.
China, Russia silent
Most of the countries did not offer new emissions goals. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China expects its carbon emissions to peak before 2030 and the country will achieve net zero emissions by 2060.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed giving preferential treatment for foreign investment in clean energy projects, but also made an apparent reference to the US being historically the world’s top greenhouse gas polluter. “It is no secret that the conditions that facilitated global warming and associated problems go way back,” he said.
How the US plans to do it
The US emissions cuts are expected to come from power plants, automobiles, and other sectors across the economy.
Biden’s recently introduced $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan contains numerous measures that could deliver some of the emissions cuts needed this decade, including a clean energy standard to achieve net zero emissions in the power sector by 2035 and moves to electrify the vehicle fleet.
Administration officials briefing reporters in advance of Biden’s announcement made no direct mention of politically tricky moves to wean the US from oil, natural gas and coal. They emphasised the role of technology, including carbon capture and hydrogen power, which have yet to be affordably developed to scale.
New urgency
The new urgency comes as scientists say that climate change caused by coal plants, car engines and other fossil fuel use is already worsening droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters and that humans are running out of time to stave off most catastrophic extremes of global warming. “The US is not waiting, the costs of delay are too great, and our nation is resolved to act now,” the Biden administration said in a statement.
Pope joins the summit
Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris opened the Earth Day summit from the White House East Room before world leaders, including the heads of China, Russia, India, Gulf oil states, European and Asian allies and island and coastal nations already struggling against the effects of climate change. Pope Francis also took part.
Biden join a second session of the live-streamed summit in the morning on financing poorer countries’ efforts to remake and protect their economies against global warming.
UN chief hails climate summit as turning point
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed pledges at the summit as a turning point but urged immediate action. “Today’s summit shows the tide is turning for climate action, but there is still a long way to go,” he said in a statement.
Groundwork for annual UN climate talks in November
The summit is the first in a string of meetings of world leaders, including the G7 and G20, ahead of annual UN climate talks in November in Scotland. That serves as the deadline for nearly 200 countries to update their climate pledges under the Paris agreement, an international accord set in 2015.
World leaders aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold scientists say can prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
A US official said with the new target, enhanced commitments from Japan and Canada, and prior targets from the EU and Britain, countries accounting for more than half the world’s economy were now committed to reductions to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal.
“The importance of this day in my judgement is the world came together,” Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry said.