U.S. President Joe Biden is calling on world leaders to prioritize climate policies over geopolitical conflicts at a global summit, seeking to close the gap between promises and actual climate policies.
World Climate Summit: Biden urges leaders to take collective action
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought energy security to the forefront, it has also complicated Biden ‘s vision for transitioning the United States away from oil and gas production. Nonetheless, Biden remains committed to a 50 percent to 52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to aligning with goals to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
At a virtual summit attended by economies representing about 80 percent of global GDP and greenhouse gas emissions, Biden urged world leaders to recommit to action on climate change. TheInternational Energy Agency warns that the window for decisive action is closing fast and that current policies are leading the world down a 2.5-degree Celsius warming path, making it essential for leaders to accelerate progress through collective action.
Biden announced a $1 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund to support developing nations most affected by the impacts of climate change. He also called on other countries to lobby multilateral development banks to increase lending for climate projects. Biden sought the support of other leaders at the summit to accelerate progress through collective action to decarbonize energy, end deforestation, reduce non-carbon GHG emissions, and improve carbon management.
Strengthening global support for the International Maritime Organization’s decarbonization goals
The U.S. is making unprecedented investments to achieve carbon-free power by 2035, including increasing offshore wind, advanced nuclear power, clean hydrogen and other green technologies. Biden also urged world leaders to join the collective goal of ensuring that at least 50 percent of new passenger cars and 30 percent of trucks will be zero-emission by 2030. The Biden administration is also working to build global support for the International Maritime Organization’s decarbonization goals for the shipping sector.
Biden touted the more than $20 billion investment the U.S. is making in methane reduction to shut down abandoned wells and plug leaks in the oil and gas system, which is expected to reduce U.S. methane emissions by 87 percent from 2005 levels. He invited other leaders to join the Global Methane Compact to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 and to “join us in the spirit of methane finance to raise at least $200 million by COP28 to help developing countries reduce their own methane emissions.”
Finally, Biden urged summit leaders to participate in a new carbon management challenge, aimed at securing a robust pipeline of internationally critical CCUS and CDR projects that can be unveiled at COP28. Investments in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies would also reduce the cost of climate technologies for countries around the world, in some cases by as much as 50 percent.
