After spending months trying to get investments into preventing climate change into his Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden turned his climate change focus to the global stage at COP26 Monday. The UN climate summit aims to get governments to commit to cutting carbon emissions at a rate fast enough to limit warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.
On Monday, the White House unveiled a new plan for the United States to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. The plan, filed in compliance with the Paris agreement, includes the following:
- Increased reliance on wind, solar and other clean energy
- Increased investments in electric vehicles and mass transit
- State-of-the-art technology
- Carefully preserved open spaces to soak up carbon dioxide from the air
“The President is also committed to partnering with countries most in need to strengthen the resilience of communities and economies across the world, including those vulnerable to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, reducing tensions and risks of instability,” the White House said in a fact sheet on the plan.
While COP26 is an opportunity for Biden to work with other countries on climate change, he used part of his time on the global stage to go after American rivals Russia and China. Biden’s comments follow a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in Rome over the weekend. Biden called the summit “disappointing”.
“The disappointment relates to the fact that Russia, and … not only Russia but China basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate changes,” Biden said. Major polluters, including China and Russia, have made clear they had no immediate intention of following the U.S. and its European and Asian allies to zero out all fossil fuel pollution by 2050.
There were some things accomplished at the Rome summit. Leaders agreed on a series of measures, including formalizing a pledge to cut off international subsidies for coal-fired power plants.
