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Global climate summit: US sets emissions target for 2030; China offers no new commitments
- Biden pledges that the US would cut greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030
- India and China do not offer new commitments, but Xi Jinping pledges to ‘strictly control’ coal-fired power plants
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Leaders from around the world called on Thursday for cooperation to reduce greenhouse gases towards an eventual goal of net-zero carbon emissions in a bid to tamp down a rapidly warming planet.
Addressing 40 leaders from six continents, summit host US President Joe Biden cited the need to balance costs and responsibilities, while Chinese President Xi Jinping underscored the role of developing countries in sustainable development.
And European leaders called for greater use of innovative financing and disruptive green technologies as the global economy recovers.
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In a bid to spur other major polluters to take more ambitious steps, and signal that the US is keen to reclaim its climate leadership role, Biden pledged that the US would cut greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030.
“This is a moment of peril but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities,” he said in a short speech to world leaders. “We really have no choice. We have to get this done.”
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Biden’s commitment compares with a pledge during the Barack Obama administration to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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