The summit wanted by Joe Biden to mark the return of the United States to the front line against global warming begins to take shape: Washington invited, Friday, 40 world leaders, including the Chinese and Russian presidents, to the meeting of 22 and 23 April.
The summit will be “virtual” due to the pandemic, but “broadcast live,” the White House said in a statement.
The US president told reporters he has not “spoken yet” to his Chinese counterparts, Xi Jinping, and Russian counterparts, Vladimir Putin. “But they know they are invited,” he added.
While showing great firmness vis-à-vis China and Russia, the Democrat says he wants to cooperate with these two powers that are opponents of the United States in the face of common challenges and first and foremost in climate matters.
Among the other leaders invited to these virtual exchanges are, on the European side, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Head of the Israeli Government, Benjamin Netanyahu, the President Trick, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro are also invited.
These are the 17 countries responsible for around 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions and global gross domestic product, explained the US presidency, as well as leading states in the fight against climate change or particularly exposed to its effects.
After Donald Trump’s disengagement, the new president, as promised, decided on his first day in the White House, on January 20, to reintegrate the United States into the Paris Climate Agreement. The return of the world’s largest economy means that almost all the nations of the planet are now parties to the agreement signed in 2015.
By the end of January, Joe Biden then announced his intention to hold a climate summit on April 22 to coincide with Earth Day.
It will ultimately be held over two days to “underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of more resolute climate action,” the White House said. It will mark “an important step” towards the major UN climate conference, COP26, scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland.
The US president has pledged to reduce pollution levels in the US energy sector to zero by 2035 and to have the US economy achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Between now and the summit, the United States will announce an ambitious emissions target for 2030,” as part of their contribution to the Paris Agreement, his services confirmed. “In his invitation, the president urged the leaders to take advantage of the summit to explain how their country intends to also contribute to a strengthened climate ambition.”
Taken over by the management of health and economic crises, Joe Biden has, for the moment, remained relatively behind on this theme, leaving his special envoy for the climate, John Kerry, to prepare the ground.
The latter, former Secretary of State and ex-candidate for the White House, multiplies the interventions and made his first trip to Europe.
In particular, he called on the states of the planet to revise their climate ambitions upwards at the Glasgow summit.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial revolution levels, and to continue efforts to limit this rise to 1.5 degrees.
Under Donald Trump’s mandate, the world’s largest economy had given up on formulating objectives. The upcoming announcement from the Biden administration is therefore eagerly awaited, with the United States being the world’s second-largest emitter of CO2 after China.
It is all the more so since the UN sounded the alarm at the end of February, indicating that only 75 countries (including EU members) out of the 200 or so signatories to the agreement had submitted their commitments. revised before December 31, 2020.