Happy Nice Mall

GLASGOW – President Biden said at a global climate summit on Monday we “have only a short window ahead” of reducing emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, which pose an “existential threat” to humanity. But just days ago, he was calling on the world’s biggest oil producers to pump more of the fossil fuels that are warming the planet.

Incompatibility took center stage both at the global climate summit currently taking place in Scotland and during a meeting of leaders from the 20 largest economies in Rome last weekend. The president’s comments highlighted the political and economic realities facing politicians grappling with climate change. They highlighted the complexity of moving away from fossil fuels, which has been the foundation of global economic activity since the Industrial Age.

“On the surface this seems like an irony,” Mr Biden said at a press conference on Sunday. “But the truth is – you all knew; everybody knows – the idea that we could switch to renewable energy overnight,” he said, “didn’t make sense.”

Mr. Biden’s remarks drew backlash from energy experts and climate activists, who said the world couldn’t afford to increase oil and gas production if it wanted to prevent catastrophic warming. Environmental groups are watching intensely to see how the president plans to meet his ambitious goal of halving the country’s emissions by the end of this decade compared to 2005 levels.

A recent International Energy Agency report, countries should immediately stop the development of new oil, gas and coal if they hope to prevent the average global temperature from rising 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the threshold at which scientists say Earth is facing irreversible damage. The planet has already warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius.

“We are experiencing a climate crisis. “There is no room for the left hand and the right hand to do different things,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International. “It is not credible to say that you are fighting for 1.5 degrees while demanding increased oil production.”

As gasoline prices rose above $3.30 nationwide, Mr. Biden over the weekend urged OPEC countries and Russia to increase production from major energy producing countries with spare capacity as part of a larger effort to increase oil supply. He was joined by Emmanuel Macron from France, who hosted the 2015 meeting in Paris, where 200 countries agreed to collectively tackle global warming.

At the end of the Group of 20 summit Sunday, which ended with a loud discourse on climate but less concrete action than activists had hoped, Mr. Biden addressed the irony directly. He said at a press conference that the transition to lower-emission energy sources will take years, and it’s important to ensure that people have enough money to drive their cars and heat their homes in the meantime.

“It seems inconsistent on the surface,” said the president, “but it’s not at all inconsistent that no one is predicting that we’ll be in a position this year – or even next year – that we’ll be in. will use more oil or gas; that we won’t deal with any fossil fuels. We’ll stop subsidizing these fossil fuels. “We’re going to make significant changes. And that just makes the argument that we need to move to renewable energy – wind, solar and other energy vehicles – faster.”

Mr. Biden’s climate and social spending plan pending in Congress does not eliminate government subsidies for fossil fuels, which are estimated at around $20 billion annually.

His comments came as the president and his aides struggled to fend off Republican attacks. economic agenda to rising inflation, including high gasoline prices that help lower approval scores.

Mr. Biden was highly sensitive to pump policy. Earlier this year, he repeatedly turned down efforts by Republican senators to raise federal gasoline taxes—a move that economists commonly said would deter oil demand—would put an unnecessary burden on middle-class Americans and violate his commitment not to raise taxes on people. earns less than $400,000 a year.

Middle-class Americans “have to start their business. “They have to get in a car, turn on the key, and take their kids to school,” he said. “School buses should run.” “The idea that there is an alternative to getting away from being able to get into your car is unrealistic; this will not happen.”

Higher gas and oil prices can have volatile effects in the broader economy and raise costs for transportation-related industries such as trucking. This, in turn, raises the prices of goods, increasing the cost of everything that needs to be shipped. And if consumers spend more of their income on filling their cars and heating their homes, they have less money to spend on those goods.

The president’s responses somewhat echoed the executives of several major oil and gas companies who testified before a meeting last week. home panel They explore their industry’s role in disinformation aimed at slowing the transition to wind, solar and other clean energy. Democrats on the committee sought to get promises from executives that they would phase out oil and gas development, while Republicans noted that Mr. Biden had asked companies to increase production.

“Oil and gas will continue to be essential for the foreseeable future,” Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told the committee. “We currently do not have enough alternative energy sources.”

Mr. Biden’s legislative agenda aims to accelerate the oil migration in several ways. The massive spending bill pending in Congress includes $550 billion in climate initiatives focused largely on tax credits to promote solar power, electric cars and other technologies to reduce emissions. A separate piece of legislation includes a bipartisan infrastructure bill, an upfront bid for Mr Biden’s goal of building a national network of electric vehicle charging stations.

However, these initiatives have not yet passed. And even if they did, it could be years before they begin to shift American consumer preferences away from gasoline-powered vehicles; This is a delay that administration officials have repeatedly noted in explaining its push for more oil production in the short term.

“If he had asked them to increase production within five years, I would have quit,” John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s presidential special envoy for climate, told reporters on Sunday. “But he’s not. He’s asking them to increase production right now.”

Mr. Kerry argued that as the world expands wind and solar power and invests in new transmission networks to bring this renewable electricity to homes and businesses, it will “free” countries from dependence on fossil fuels.

“But you can’t just shut down everybody’s economy on the planet and say, ‘OK, we’re not going to use oil,’ or whatever,” Mr. Kerry said.

Some energy analysts agree, saying that the timing of Mr Biden’s increased demand for oil production may be odd, but that it reflects economic reality. “There’s a difference between the world we have today and the world we want in the future,” said Jason Bordoff of the Columbia School of Climate at Columbia University.

“It makes sense that the Biden administration is simultaneously trying to make sure there is enough and affordable energy for households today, while also taking the most aggressive measures in US history to promote the electrification of vehicles and move beyond oil in the future,” he said. said.

In its roadmap detailing how to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by the middle of the century, the International Energy Agency called for an end to sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035; phasing out the 2040 power plant that burns coal, oil and gas without capturing their emissions; and create a global energy sector based largely on renewable sources by 2050.

The IEA also warned that emissions are still rising and the world is still heading in the wrong direction and failing to grasp the massive transformation of the global energy system needed to keep the planet safe.

The World Meteorological Organization reported last month that despite the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, the amount of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere reached a record level in 2020 and has risen again this year. Meanwhile, China has been expanding its coal production and imports in response to power outages for the past few months.

Justin Guay, director of global strategy with the Sunrise Project, a nonprofit group advocating a global transition from oil, gas and coal, said the United States and other nations must immediately halt production of new fossil fuels.

“Net zero lives or dies depending on whether we move beyond fossil fuels,” said Mr Guay, whose group is not affiliated with the Sunrise Movement activist group. “This starts with an immediate halt to the expansion of coal, oil and gas. Not next year or next decade. Now.”