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However, new commitments are still missing from 70 countries, including China, which currently produces the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as Saudi Arabia and India, both major economies with a significant climate footprint. Brazil, Mexico and Russia submitted new commitments with weaker emissions targets than their predecessors.
Taken together, the report confirms that all these commitments are far below what is needed to limit global temperature rise to levels that would prevent the worst effects of warming. When reached in 2015, the Paris Agreement set a goal of limiting average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
Since then, due to advances in research, the scientific consensus is that the increase should be limited to 1.5 degrees C; Beyond this threshold, there is a much greater probability of catastrophic consequences such as widespread crop famine and the collapse of the polar ice sheets. So far, global temperatures have increased by about 1 degree since the late 19th century.
The USA, which has produced the largest share of global emissions since the beginning of the industrial age, for its part, reduce emissions by 50 percent It is 52 percent below 2005 levels at the end of the decade, a target that fears the commitments of the European Union and the UK.
But it’s already proving difficult, especially politically, and it remains to be seen whether Mr Biden can persuade members of Congress to support major climate laws before he heads to international climate talks in November.
On Friday, at the White House meeting known as the Forum for the Greater Economies on Energy and Climate, Mr. Biden urged the leaders of nine countries and the European Commission to act faster and more aggressively to reduce greenhouse gases. He also announced that the United States and Europe have pledged to help reduce their methane emissions by 30 percent globally by 2030, and have asked other countries to join the effort. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.
“I need to tell you the consequences of inaction,” Mr. Biden said.
Citing recent extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires across the country, flooding in Germany and Belgium, severe fires in Australia and Russia, and record temperatures in the Arctic Circle, Mr Biden told leaders: “A lot of time.”
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