President Biden on Thursday announced new plans to fight climate change, including pledging $500 million to help Brazil’s efforts to end deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, and he called on other countries to “step up our ambitions” to stave off devastating global warming.
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In a virtual meeting with leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, or MEF, Biden laid out several other steps the United States is taking to meet its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, such as scaling up clean energy technologies and cutting carbon emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030.
“We’re already seeing the signs of what’s to come if we don’t [meet these climate goals],” Biden warned. “More severe droughts, more floods, seas rising temperatures, rising weather, instability, market unpredictability.”
Biden also pledged $1 billion in new funding to the United Nations’s Green Climate Fund to help developing countries fight climate change, noting that those countries often bear the most deleterious effects of climate change even though they contribute the least to the problem.
“As large economies and large emitters, we must step up and support these economies,” he said.
Other Biden administration energy and climate goals include decarbonizing the energy and international shipping industries, reducing fossil fuel use, cutting methane emissions and phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons typically found in refrigeration and air conditioning.
Biden credited the Inflation Reduction Act and a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, both of which he signed into law, as measures that would help the United States meet its goals. Through those laws, the country was investing billions to scale-up clean energy technologies and bolstering the electric vehicle industry, he said.
Biden said he would request funds to contribute $500 million over the next five years to the Amazon Fund, Brazil’s effort to end deforestation by 2030. That aid, which would require congressional approval, is far from certain, with Republicans controlling the House.
The meeting Thursday morning was the fourth time the MEF has convened during Biden’s time in office. The group was launched in 2009 and now includes 26 major economies, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Biden has said tackling the climate crisis is one of his administration’s top priorities, and on Thursday called the coming years a “decisive decade” for countries to collaborate to fight global warming.
“We’re at a moment of great peril, but also great possibilities, serious possibilities,” Biden said. “With the right commitment and follow-through from every nation in this room and on this call, a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees can stay within reach. But it’s going to take all of us — not just one of us, not some of us, that meet the moment. All of us, all of us have to be engaged.”
Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
In a virtual meeting with leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, or MEF, Biden laid out several other steps the United States is taking to meet its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, such as scaling up clean energy technologies and cutting carbon emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030.
“We’re already seeing the signs of what’s to come if we don’t [meet these climate goals],” Biden warned. “More severe droughts, more floods, seas rising temperatures, rising weather, instability, market unpredictability.”
Biden also pledged $1 billion in new funding to the United Nations’s Green Climate Fund to help developing countries fight climate change, noting that those countries often bear the most deleterious effects of climate change even though they contribute the least to the problem.
“As large economies and large emitters, we must step up and support these economies,” he said.
Other Biden administration energy and climate goals include decarbonizing the energy and international shipping industries, reducing fossil fuel use, cutting methane emissions and phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons typically found in refrigeration and air conditioning.
Biden credited the Inflation Reduction Act and a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, both of which he signed into law, as measures that would help the United States meet its goals. Through those laws, the country was investing billions to scale-up clean energy technologies and bolstering the electric vehicle industry, he said.
Biden said he would request funds to contribute $500 million over the next five years to the Amazon Fund, Brazil’s effort to end deforestation by 2030. That aid, which would require congressional approval, is far from certain, with Republicans controlling the House.
The meeting Thursday morning was the fourth time the MEF has convened during Biden’s time in office. The group was launched in 2009 and now includes 26 major economies, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Biden has said tackling the climate crisis is one of his administration’s top priorities, and on Thursday called the coming years a “decisive decade” for countries to collaborate to fight global warming.
“We’re at a moment of great peril, but also great possibilities, serious possibilities,” Biden said. “With the right commitment and follow-through from every nation in this room and on this call, a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees can stay within reach. But it’s going to take all of us — not just one of us, not some of us, that meet the moment. All of us, all of us have to be engaged.”
