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President Biden will actually convene some of the leaders of the countries most responsible for climate change on Friday, urging them to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a critical United Nations summit in November.
Biden will encourage other countries to sign a global target to reduce methane, the main component of natural gas and an extremely potent greenhouse gas, a White House official said on a background call to reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Countries that have signed the “global methane commitment” set by the United States and Europe will agree to work together to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030, according to non-authorized European and United States climate negotiators. Discuss the details of the plan publicly.
“We’re trying to get people to join a global effort to try to tackle methane,” John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s climate change ambassador, said in an interview over the weekend. Accelerates the global damage rate. ”
Carbon dioxide is the biggest driver of climate change, but methane is stronger in the short run, warming the atmosphere 80 times more than the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
American Gas Association president and CEO Karen Harbert said in a statement that U.S. natural gas utilities are “in everything” when it comes to addressing climate change, but didn’t directly comment on the methane problem.
The meeting will be the second of this year’s Great Economies Forum, which Mr. Biden has revived after former President Donald J. Trump’s withdrawal from the forum and the Paris climate agreement. Mr. Biden rejoins the climate agreement when you enter the office.
The White House has not released a list of attendees, but the Greater Economies Forum traditionally features a mix of wealthy European countries and major emerging economies. It is unclear whether officials from China, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will attend Friday, but the country’s president, Xi Jinping, attended the first summit in April.
The discussions come less than six weeks before the talks in Glasgow, where countries that have pledged to fend off the worst consequences of climate change will be expected to demonstrate what they’ve done and commit to even more ambitious targets.
The Biden administration has pledged to reduce emissions 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. But achieving this will depend on the adoption of a $3.5 trillion budget bill that includes policy to significantly reduce fossil fuel pollution caused by the energy sector. This law is facing a tough battle in Congress.
China and India have yet to commit to deeper emissions cuts, and the Biden administration relies on both countries to do so.
The United Nations’ top climate science body has found this year that the world is cooking in a hotter future than now, and that global warming will increase by around 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next two decades. Keeping temperatures below this threshold is critical to avoiding the worst consequences of climate change, and the window to enact strong policies is closing.
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