US President Joe Biden is including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) among the invitees to the first big climate talks of his administration.
Biden is seeking to revive a US-convened forum of the world’s major economies on climate that former US presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama used, but former US president Donald Trump let languish.
The event is to be held virtually on April 22 and 23.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hosting the summit would fulfill a campaign pledge and executive order by Biden, and the administration is timing the event to coincide with its own announcement of what is expected to be a much tougher US target for revamping its economy to sharply cut emissions from coal, natural gas and oil.
The Biden administration intentionally looked beyond its international partners for the summit, reaching out to key leaders for what it said would sometimes be tough talks on climate matters, an administration official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss US plans for the event.
Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement as one of his first actions as president.
That makes next month’s summit the first major international climate discussions by a US leader in more than four years, although leaders in Europe and elsewhere have kept up talks.
Another Biden administration official said that the US is still deciding how far the administration would go in setting a more ambitious emissions target.
The administration hopes the stage provided by next month’s Earth Day climate summit — planned to be all virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic and publicly viewable online — would encourage other international leaders to use it as a platform to announce their own countries’ tougher emission targets or other commitments, the second official said.
Like Bush’s and Obama’s major-economies climate forums, Biden’s invitation list includes leaders of the world’s biggest economies and European blocs.
That includes two countries — Russia and China — that Biden and his diplomats are clashing with over alleged election interference, cyberattacks and human rights issues.
Climate scientists and climate policy experts largely welcomed Biden’s international overture on climate negotiations, especially the outreach to China.
“China is by far the world’s largest emitter. Russia needs to do more to reduce its emissions. Not including these countries because they aren’t doing enough would be like launching an anti-smoking campaign, but not directing it at smokers,” said Nigel Purvis, who worked on climate diplomacy in past US administrations.
Ideally, government leaders of China and other major economies will be looking for opportunities to talk over specific matters, such as whether broad agreement is possible on setting any price on carbon emissions, said former US representative Bob Inglis. “That’s why this kind of outreach makes sense.”
The 40 invitees also include leaders of countries facing some of the gravest immediate threats, including low-lying Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands.
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