President Joe Biden is redoubling his predecessor’s redefinition of environmental policies by inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping of China to his government’s first major climate negotiations next month with the aim of increasing cooperation to combat warming global.
The Leaders’ Climate Summit talks, scheduled to take place virtually on April 22 and 23, are an opportunity for the US to shape, accelerate and deepen global efforts to reduce climate pollution by fossil fuels, government officials told Associated. Press.
According to the White House, 40 invitations were sent on Friday to leaders covering a range of countries, some already affected by the climate crisis, others on a spectrum ranging from relatively reformist to ultra-polluters.
“In his invitation, the president asked leaders to use the summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries will also contribute to stronger climate ambition,” said the White House.
Biden’s effort is an arena in which the United States can show clear differentiation from the previous administration of Donald Trump, who rejected the UN climate agreements in Paris in 2015 in favor of an America First energy policy which, among other controversial initiatives, rejected the improvement of energy efficiency standards and promoted domestic fracking to reduce dependence on foreign energy.
The negotiations also aim to revive a forum organized by the United States of the world’s major climate economies, which previous governments, Republicans and Democrats, have allowed to cease to exist. They will also mark the first time that a US leader has participated in an important international climate debate in more than four years.
The summit is also the fulfillment of a campaign promise and executive order from Biden designed to be launched in conjunction with a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure spending package designed to stimulate the US post-Covid economy and drastically reduce emissions. greenhouse gases from legacy fuel sources.
As a candidate in the 2020 elections, Biden pledged $ 2 trillion in investments to help transform the United States into a zero-emission economy by 2050, while building clean energy and technology jobs.
Authorities said they hoped that, by demonstrating the US commitment to emission cuts at home, the US could encourage similar movements abroad, including encouraging governments to reform the transportation and power generation sectors, as well as more economies of consumption. to achieve more ambitious environmental goals.
But the talks will test Biden’s promise to make the climate crisis a priority among competing political, economic, political, pandemic and post-pandemic issues, according to the AP.
Led by US climate envoy John Kerry, American officials have emphasized US climate intentions during their first face-to-face conversations with foreign leaders. Biden reportedly discussed negotiations with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday, with the two leaders agreeing on the need to keep emissions cut targets ambitious.
A summary of the conversation provided by the White House said the pair discussed “the importance of developing ambitious climate goals, noting the opportunities offered by the Climate Leaders’ Summit and the UK G7 presidency”.
But officials also told the AP that the United States is still deliberating on how far the government will go by setting more ambitious emissions targets for the United States. The talks, they said, will be broadcast live to encourage other international leaders to use them as a platform to showcase their own countries’ commitments to the climate crisis.
However, despite the emphasis on global cooperation, the government’s first efforts to reshape US relations with China got off to a rough start last week during high-level talks in Anchorage, Alaska, which began with an exchange of insults.
Against this background, climate negotiations – which will take place seven months before the UN’s global climate sessions in November in Glasgow – will offer a deliberate test of whether, after four years of isolationist and aggressive diplomatic non-compliance, the United States still has power to shape global decision-making.
Biden’s invitation list includes leaders from the world’s largest economies and European blocs. But it is not yet clear how Russia and China, both on the guest list, will respond or whether they are willing to cooperate with any US-led climate initiative.
Although China lags behind the United States in general economic power, it is the world’s largest emitter of climate-damaging pollution, with the United States in second, India in third and Russia in four.
“China is by far the largest emitter in the world. Russia needs to do more to reduce its emissions, ”said Nigel Purvis, who has worked on climate diplomacy in previous Democratic and Republican governments. “Not including these countries because they are not doing enough would be like launching an anti-smoking campaign, but not targeting smokers.”
Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, must also be in the diplomatic crosshairs for thwarting efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest, a vital global carbon sink.
Among the guests are leaders of countries under the most immediate – and devastating – ecological threat. They include Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands, both of which are threatened by rising sea levels.
The guest list is also notable for other reasons: King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is invited. But Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s apparent heir, subject to a diplomatic freeze due to what US intelligence agencies conclude is his approval of an operation to “capture or kill” American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has been left out.