The US is to hold a climate summit of the world’s major economies early next year, within 100 days of US president-elect Joe Biden taking office on Jan. 20, and seek to rejoin the Paris agreement on the first day of his presidency, in a boost to international climate action.
Leaders from 75 countries met without the US in a virtual Climate Ambition Summit cohosted by the UN, the UK and France over the weekend, marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris accord.
The absence of the US underlined the need for more countries, including other major economies, such as Brazil, Russia and Indonesia, to make fresh commitments on tackling the climate crisis.
Photo: AFP
“I’ll immediately start working with my counterparts around the world to do all that we possibly can, including by convening the leaders of major economies for a climate summit within my first 100 days in office... We’ll elevate the incredible work cities, states and businesses have been doing to help reduce emissions and build a cleaner future. We’ll listen to and engage closely with the activists, including young people, who have continued to sound the alarm and demand change from those in power,” Biden said in a statement.
He reiterated his pledge to put the US on a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and said the move would be good for the US economy and workers.
“We’ll do all of this knowing that we have before us an enormous economic opportunity to create jobs and prosperity at home and export clean American-made products around the world,” he said.
“It is a very important signal,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We look forward to a very active US leadership in climate action from now on as US leadership is absolutely essential. The US is the largest economy in the world, it’s absolutely essential for our goals to be reached.”
US President Donald Trump, whose withdrawal of the US from the Paris agreement took effect on the day after the US election in November, shunned the Climate Ambition Summit.
Countries including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico were excluded as they had failed to commit to climate targets in line with the Paris accord.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had sought to join the summit, but his commitments were judged inadequate, and an announcement from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of a net zero target just before the summit was derided as lacking credibility.
The Climate Ambition Summit failed to produce a major breakthrough, but more than 70 countries gave further details of plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement goal of limiting temperature rises to well below 2oC above pre-industrial levels, with an aspirational 1.5oC limit.
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