President Biden urged other world leaders Friday to join the U.S. in taking new environmental actions and setting aside more spending for climate change initiatives, moves he told participants of an international climate meeting would allow them to break free from a volatile global energy market.
Hosting the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate that featured more than two dozen nations, which together produce 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Biden said it was paramount for the globe to accelerate the process of ditching fossil fuels for renewable energy to combat global warming and sky-high energy costs.
Mr. Biden has faced intense pressure from green activists to do more on climate change while at the same time receiving fierce criticism from politicians and voters to encourage more oil production to blunt record-high prices at the pump that threatens Democrats’ control over Washington.
“These are all achievable goals, in my view. And if we all commit to doing our part to get it done, and if we do, then we’re unlocking incredible opportunities for all our people around the world,” he said during the virtual meeting. “More growth, more innovation, more good-paying jobs to support working families, greater food security for communities around the world, and we’ll finally break our dependence on volatile energy markets and high gas prices.”
Mr. Biden unveiled several clean energy initiatives that the administration hopes will set the stage for foreign leaders to follow suit to meet the long-term and ambitious environmental targets laid out in the Paris climate agreement.
Those new initiatives included advancing a previous global pledge to curb potent methane emissions by 30% by 2030, which often escape through leaks in the oil and natural gas sector; a $90 billion global initiative for new carbon-cutting technologies, $21.5 billion of which will come from the U.S. through last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law; an urging for countries to follow suit of the U.S. goal for half of the new vehicles sold to be electric or hybrid by 2030; and fully decarbonizing the ocean shipping industry by 2050, which the White House said would be the eighth largest emitter if it were a country.
China, Australia, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Japan and Egypt were among the participating countries. Egypt will host the United Nations’ climate summit, known as COP27, in November. It acts as the leading annual event for world leaders to come together and discuss climate change.
John Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, also joined the meeting. During a public portion, he cited the lack of environmental focus under Mr. Biden’s predecessor as one of several reasons why this is the “critical decade” to tackle climate change before it causes irreparable damage.
“It is also my privilege to serve in an administration working full-time to make up for our absence of several years and determined to meet the climate crisis head-on,” Mr. Kerry said.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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