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Earth Day 2021 Climate Summit

April 2021

AP sources: Biden to pledge halving greenhouse gases by 2030

President Biden's emissions target stated for the virtual climate summit of 40 national leaders will signal how aggressively Biden wants to move on climate change. The target Biden chooses “is setting the tone for the level of ambition and the pace of emission reductions over the next decade," said Kate Larsen, a former White House adviser who helped develop President Barack Obama’s climate action plan. Whatever emissions reduction target Biden picks, Larsen said, the climate summit itself “proves the U.S. is back in rejoining the international effort? to address climate change.

The summit is “the starting gun for climate diplomacy” after a four-year “hiatus” under Trump, she explained. The emissions target has to be achievable by 2030 but aggressive enough to satisfy scientists and advocates who call the coming decade a crucial, make-or-break moment for slowing climate change. Predicted is a target that would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.

- "Clearly the science demands at least 50% in reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2030", said Jake Schmidt, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council. A 50% target "is ambitious, but it is achievable", Schmidt said. "People know what 50% means — it’s half."

- "The science is clear: we are in a climate emergency," said Laura Berry, Climate Clock research lead, in a press statement. "With its deadline and new lifeline, the Climate Clock makes explicit the speed and scope of action that political leaders must take in order to limit the worst impacts of climate devastation."

- “This is a crucial early moment, and it’s a moment for the U.S. to shine, to show it’s really committed,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “This is a moment not just for rhetoric about leadership. We have to lead by example.”

- “Let’s stop talking about 2050," said Biden’s climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, who is leading White House efforts to develop U.S. climate commitments for 2030. Climate activists should focus on strategies and actions now, in this decade McCarthy said at a forum last week.

- U.N. Secretary General António Guterres asked countries to commit to a target similar to the one Biden will probably endorse: a cut in global emissions of 45 percent by 2030. “The climate is changing, and the impacts are already too costly for people and the planet,” Guterres said Monday (April 19).

(Associated Press) A 50% target, which most experts consider a likely outcome of intense deliberations underway at the White House, would nearly double the nation’s previous commitment and require dramatic changes in the power and transportation sectors, including significant increases in renewable energy such as wind and solar power and steep cuts in emissions from fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Anything short of that goal could undermine Biden’s promise to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, experts say, while likely stirring up sharp criticism from international allies and Biden’s own supporters.

Nathaniel Keohane, another former Obama White House adviser and now a vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund, said experts have coalesced around the need for the U.S. to reduce emissions by at least 50% by 2030.

“The number has to start with 5,” he said, adding, "We’ve done the math. We need at least 50%."

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• https://apnews.com/article/biden-emissions-goals-climate-summit-c02ea56b944d01c812644900fce803e7

• https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/the-whole-atmosphere-has-changed-china-s-ambitious-plan-to-solve-the-climate-puzzle-20210401-p57fwq.html

• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/18/us-china-agree-to-tackle-climate-crisis-with-urgency

• https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/18/politics/us-china-climate-change-shanghai-intl-hnk/index.html

• https://www.vox.com/2021/4/19/22386142/earth-day-biden-china-united-states-climate-summit-india-brazil-russia-paris-agreement

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-18/u-s-china-say-they-will-cooperate-to-tackle-climate-change

• https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/trump-biden-climate-change-john-kerry-b1833323.html

• https://www.axios.com/us-climate-change-credibility-paris-targets-5dad0a97-4fb8-4324-8372-76632fcd12b8.html

• https://www.npr.org/2021/04/18/988493971/u-s-china-agree-to-cooperate-on-climate-crisis-with-urgency

• https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/18/politics/john-kerry-climate-change-joe-biden/index.html

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/19/us-embarks-huge-climate-reset/

• https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-04-18/biden-carbon-reduction-paris-climate-targets-global-warming-cop26

• https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/biden-global-climate-summit-new-emissions-target-us-china-cooperation.html

• https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/548801-for-a-win-on-climate-lets-put-our-best-player-in-the

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President Biden Invites 40 World Leaders to Leaders Summit on Climate

• https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/26/president-biden-invites-40-world-leaders-to-leaders-summit-on-climate/

The President invited the following leaders to participate in the Summit:

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda

President Alberto Fernandez, Argentina

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh

Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Bhutan

President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada

President Sebastián Piñera, Chile

President Xi Jinping, People’s Republic of China

President Iván Duque Márquez, Colombia

President Félix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark

President Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission

President Charles Michel, European Council

President Emmanuel Macron, France

President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon

Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India

President Joko Widodo, Indonesia

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel

Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Jamaica

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan

President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya

President David Kabua, Republic of the Marshall Islands

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand

President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway

President Andrzej Duda, Poland

President Moon Jae-in, Republic of Korea

President Vladimir Putin, The Russian Federation

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore

President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United Kingdom

President Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnam

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