US President Joe Biden on Thursday ramped up ambitions on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, putting the country back at the forefront with a summit he hopes brings the world closer to limiting the worst climate change. In a virtual Earth Day summit, Mr. Biden will announce that the US will cut emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, officials said.
Australia currently has a 2030 target of reducing 2005-level emissions by 26 to 28 percent.
Mr. Biden, in a massive diplomatic undertaking for a three-month-old administration, is welcoming 40 leaders for two days of meetings, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the presidents of adversaries China and Russia, and Pope Francis.
The new US target aims to “challenge the world on increasing ambition and combatting the climate crisis”, an administration official, who spoke under customary condition of anonymity, told reporters.
Combined with announcements expected by other leaders, the official said the world would be closer – but not yet on track – to keep the planet’s temperature within 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, the level scientists say is needed to avoid the most severe effects of climate change.
“Over half the world’s economy is now moving to cut emissions at a global pace needed to keep 1.5 C in reach,” the official said. “Our coalition is growing.”
The prime ministers of Japan and Canada, who have forged early bonds with Mr. Biden, are expected to unveil their new climate plans at the summit.
The European Union this week confirmed its own ambitious goals, and former bloc member Britain on the eve of Mr. Biden’s summit, released the most far-reaching targets of any significant economy with 78 percent cuts by 2035 from 1990 levels.
Britain in November will host a UN conference in Glasgow that aims to upgrade the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Under the Paris Agreement, former US president Obama said the United States would cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025 – a goal that Mr. Biden, his former vice president, has now dramatically scaled up.
Mr. Biden’s action raises the pressure on China – by far the world’s largest carbon emitter.
China’s relationship with the United States has sharply deteriorated in recent years. Still, Beijing nonetheless agreed to cooperate on climate during a pre-summit visit by John Kerry, the former US secretary of state who is now Mr. Biden’s globe-trotting climate envoy.
President Xi Jinping promised last year that China would go carbon neutral by 2060. Still, environmentalists note that it has gone slow on reducing coal – which is the dirtiest form of energy but carries political sensitivities due to mining jobs.
Comparisons between significant economies are difficult as the United States takes 2005 as its baseline while the Europeans use 1990, the date set in the landmark Kyoto Protocol.
Mr. Obama’s successor Donald Trump pulled out of Paris, calling it unfair to coal miners and the energy industry. But the United States is still primarily on track to meet Mr. Obama’s goals thanks to commitments by states, especially California, and a sharp drop in industrial production during the COVID-19 pandemic.
