US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a plan to reduce the US’ greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.
Biden made the announcement at a two-day meeting in Washington with dozens of heads of state to declare that the US is back at the climate leadership table after his predecessor, former US president Donald Trump, withdrew from the Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Yesterday, the summit was to turn to the issue of technology, featuring remarks from entrepreneurs including Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates, and billionaire philanthropist and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, after the talks on Thursday, which was Earth Day, sought to rally world ambition to reduce global warming.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The White House has sought to assure other countries that it can meet its new emission-reduction target, even if a new administration takes over, because industry is moving toward cleaner power, electric vehicles and more renewable energy anyway.
“The world, as a whole, is moving in this direction,” US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry told reporters.
“These companies have made this critical, long-term strategic marketing judgement, and that is the way the market is moving. No politician, no matter how demagogic or how potent and capable they are, is going to be able to change what that market is doing,” he said.
Yesterday, the administration was to roll out top US Cabinet officials and business leaders to make the case for technology’s role in developing a “net-zero, climate-resilient economy.”
Biden has sought to connect efforts to fight climate change with opportunities to create jobs, arguing that taking action would be good for the US economy, countering Republican concerns that overzealous climate regulation could damage it.
US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪), US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo were scheduled to take part in yesterday’s conference.
Foreign leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phucare were also slated to join.
Gates and Bloomberg have over the past few years focused their energies on climate change.
Gates has invested about US$2 billion toward the development of clean technologies, mostly in electricity generation and storage.
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