President Biden Announces Ambitious Vision on Fighting Climate Change at Global Climate Summit
Joined by 40 world leaders, President Biden emphasized the necessity of swift action to combat the climate crisis
In a virtual summit, President Joe Biden joined with world leaders to discuss the necessity of international cooperation in combating the climate crisis. Source: "Grassroots Fundraiser with Vice President Biden and Senator Harris - Wilmington, DE - August 12, 2020" by Biden For President is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
To underscore the urgency of climate change action and push for more robust international commitments to combat global warming, President Joe Biden convened with dozens of world leaders for a virtual Climate Change Summit starting on Earth Day, where he announced an aggressive new plan to reduce the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. After four years of climate inaction under the Trump administration, Biden is sending a strong message to the international community that the U.S. is back at the center of the global effort to address climate change.
In the two-day Leaders Summit on Climate, Biden set an ambitious new target to tackle the climate crisis, committing the U.S. to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half relative to 2005 levels by the end of the decade — double the target set by President Barack Obama in 2015. Joined by cabinet secretaries, climate scientists and 40 heads of government at the virtual gathering, Biden emphasized not only the dire need to combat climate change — ”the existential crisis of our time,” according to Biden — but also the economic opportunity in shifting to a greener economy.
“This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative. A moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities,” Biden said at the start of the summit. “Time is short, but I believe we can do this. And I believe that we will do this.”
The summit focused primarily on the need for the world’s major economies to develop more ambitious goals to thwart the threat posed by climate change while highlighting the opportunities for job creation and technological innovation that come with addressing the crisis. Throughout the summit, Biden and the White House repeatedly made the case that addressing the climate crisis “presents a valuable economic opportunity,” as “creating jobs and tackling climate change go hand in hand.”
“When we invest in climate resilience and infrastructure, we create opportunities for everyone. That’s at the heart of our jobs plan that I proposed here in the United States,” Biden said, vowing to create clean energy jobs in the fight against climate change.
Biden called on the world leaders present at the summit to curb damaging fossil fuel pollution and commit to international cooperation on cutting coal and petroleum emissions. While several prominent greenhouse gas polluters, like Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia, made no new pledges to reduce emissions, leaders of countries like Brazil, Canada and Japan made vital commitments to curb domestic pollution and achieve carbon neutrality in the coming years. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro moved up Brazil’s target date for achieving carbon neutrality by a decade to 2050 and vowed to end illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter, pledged to curb the country’s emissions by 46% by the end of the decade. In another show of cooperation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reconfirmed the country’s commitment to pursuing renewable energy and announced an India-U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda Partnership for 2030. India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the U.S.
“America represents less than 15 percent of the world’s emissions,” Biden said during the summit. “No nation can solve this crisis on [their] own, as I know you all fully understand. All of us — and particularly those of us who represent the world’s largest economies — we have to step up.”
The virtual gathering briefly united the leaders of global rivals — America, China and Russia — in pledging to cooperate on climate even amid ongoing disputes over non-climate issues. While Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping made specific new pledges to reduce fossil fuel pollution, they made broad commitments to address the climate crisis and work with America to cut emissions.
Allies praised Biden and the White House for hosting the summit and rejoining the Paris accord, a signal of renewed emphasis on addressing climate change on the part of the U.S. after the Trump administration exited the climate agreement and rolled back more than 100 federal environmental rules.
“I’m delighted to see that the United States is back to work together with us in climate politics,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the summit. “Because there can be no doubt about the world needing your contribution if we want to fulfill our ambitious goals.”
While Biden has committed the U.S. to cut emissions by 50%-52% by 2030, the administration has not yet unveiled the specific plan for how the nation will reach those targets. The president’s climate task force is expected to announce sector-by-sector recommendations in the future to lead the U.S. towards a more sustainable economy.