Joe Biden invites China and Russia to first global climate talks
- Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are on the list of 40 leaders getting invitations for the virtual summit in April
- The event will pose a very public test of whether Biden and the US can still drive global decision-making after years of Trump
The president is seeking to revive a US-convened forum of the world’s major economies on climate that George W. Bush and Barack Obama both used and Donald Trump let languish.
Leaders of some of the world’s top climate-change sufferers, do-gooders and backsliders round out the rest of the 40 invitations being delivered Friday. It will be held virtually April 22 and 23.
04:07
Alaska summit: China tells US not to underestimate Beijing’s will to safeguard national dignity
Hosting the summit will fulfill a campaign pledge and executive order by Biden, and the administration is timing the event with its own upcoming announcement of what’s a much tougher US target for revamping the US economy to sharply cut emissions from coal, natural gas and oil.
The session – and whether it’s all talk, or some progress – will test Biden’s pledge to make climate change a priority among competing political, economic, policy and pandemic problems.
It also will pose a very public — and potentially embarrassing or empowering — test of whether US leaders, and Biden in particular, can still drive global decision-making after the Trump administration withdrew globally and shook up long-standing alliances.
The Biden administration intentionally looked beyond its international partners for the talks, an administration official said.