US president outlines steps US is taking against climate change, apologises for Trump withdrawal from Paris Agreement.
US President Joe Biden has issued a call for global motion to combat the climate crisis, which he called a threat to the “very lifetime of the planet”.
Speaking on the COP27 United Nations climate conference in Egypt on Friday, Biden announced recent US initiatives and funding to assist developing countries, including in Africa, adapt to environmental challenges.
“The USA is acting; everyone has to act. It’s an obligation and responsibility of world leadership. Countries which are ready to assist ought to be supporting developing countries, so that they could make decisive climate decisions – facilitating their energy transitions, constructing the trail to prosperity [that’s] compatible with our climate imperative,” Biden said.
“If countries can finance coal in developing countries, there isn’t any reason why we will’t finance clean energy in developing countries.”
The US president outlined a series of steps that Washington is taking domestically and world wide to assist reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. That features funding for global climate initiatives and a push to curb planet-warming methane emissions.
On Friday, he also announced a $150m “down-payment” to support adaptation efforts throughout Africa.
Biden apologised for his predecessor Donald Trump’s decision to depart the Paris Climate Agreement and said Washington is on track to satisfy its obligations under the pact to cut back emissions by half by 2030 compared with 2005.
“From my first days in office, my administration has led with a daring agenda to handle the climate crisis and increase energy security at home and world wide,” Biden said.
“We immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement. We convened major climate summits – I apologise we ever pulled out of the agreement.”
The US is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and it’s the most important historically.
Developing countries have been pushing for a “loss and damage” fund to assist pay for the harms already inflicted by climate change, which is basically attributable to disproportionately-high emissions from wealthy and industrial countries.
On the COP27 conference, some European countries, in addition to China, said they might be willing to contribute to such a fund.
But Washington has signalled that it might not back the trouble, suggesting that international aid should go to adaptation, not compensation. US climate envoy John Kerry this week has only expressed openness to discussing the thought.
In September, Kerry said the perfect use of cash is to forestall further damage and “mitigate” the situation, adding that he doesn’t feel “guilty” over the crisis.
Egypt is hosting the worldwide climate summit as scientists proceed to sound the alarm in regards to the dangers of the climate crisis, which can result in irreversible disasters that threaten human life.
Droughts, wildfires, floods, heatwaves and devastating storms have gotten more frequent and killing hundreds world wide.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is “on a highway to climate hell“, saying that “humanity has a selection: cooperate or perish”.
