Biden commits U.S. to halving emissions
President urges heads of state at virtual summit to step up the battle against climate change
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.
“This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative,” Biden said. “A moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities.”
The latest pledge puts the United States almost on par with Europe, but still behind Britain.
In rapid succession, Japan, Canada, Britain and the European Union also 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 percent to 52 percent 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 American society, including the virtual elimination of coal for electricity and the replacement of 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 now the largest, which only add to the issues that have both 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.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell 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 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 largest providers of insurance to other insurance companies.
John Kerry, Biden’s global climate envoy, said changes in the marketplace were happening so quickly that, he believes, the U.S. won’t just meet but will surpass its new goal.
“It’s not easy,” he allowed. “Is it doable? Yes. Will we probably exceed it? I expect yes.”
But 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 at the summit.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan raised his country’s target for cutting emissions to 46 percent from 2013 levels by the end of the decade, up from 26 percent. He also said the country would “continue to try for an even higher cut” of 50 percent.
The Biden administration had pressured Japan to announce a 50 percent goal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada raised his country’s goal to a cut of 40 percent to 45 percent from 2005 levels, up from 30 percent.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korean 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, 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 five years after that. That could prove significant, since China is by far the world’s largest coal consumer and is continuing to expand its fleet of coal-fired 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 countries had a responsibility to act faster to reduce emissions.
But the U.S. can’t tame climate change alone, Biden said. America accounts for only about 15 percent of global emissions, a point made repeatedly by the president, Kerry and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Some climate activists, particularly from poorer countries that have polluted the least but are suffering the worst consequences of climate change, said the U.S. was obligated to do far more.
Even so, leaders expressed relief at working with a U.S. administration that embraces science and has returned to the global community.
“The Paris Agreement is humanity’s life insurance,” said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission. “It is so good to have the U.S. back on our side.”