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Earth Day 2021 Climate Summit

April 2021

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."

(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%."

“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.

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