Biden heads to COP27 to ‘showcase’ US climate leadership

Joe Biden will arrive at the UN climate summit in Egypt on Friday, joining a series of senior US officials and lawmakers in a bid to persuade world leaders that tackling climate change is a priority for Washington.

Biden’s trip to the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh was surrounded by heightened security and movement checks in the resort town as the US delegation, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arrived ahead of schedule . Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also travel with Biden to Egypt, before accompanying him to the G20 meeting in Indonesia next week.

It comes as the United States faces growing pressure to meet demands from developing countries for more money from wealthy nations to fund climate projects and cover damage from extreme weather events.

In recent days, as Washington has been consumed by the drama of the midterm elections, a series of UN-linked scientific reports have confirmed the urgency of the need to combat increasing global warming.

Top Biden officials touted the president’s trip as a chance to “showcase American leadership” on climate change after Congress passed its landmark climate legislation committing $369 billion to clean energy initiatives.

But the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the largest historically, is under pressure to cut emissions further to meet its commitment to reduce them by 50-52% by below 2005 levels by 2030 under the Paris Agreement.

Analysis by the Rhodium Group and other independent research organizations shows that the country is on track for a 31-44% reduction, after taking into account the Inflation Reduction Act.

To achieve their goals, the analysts said the United States must enact several federal regulations that would govern emissions from power plants and cars, and that state governments must also move forward with cleanup infrastructure and policies. more climate-friendly transport.

Earlier this month, a UN report said climate pledges made by countries around the world were woefully insufficient and put the world on track for a temperature rise of between 2.4C and 2.6°C by 2100.

As Washington struggles to meet its own promised emissions cuts, US diplomats continue to try to funnel money to help other countries reduce their carbon emissions.

US climate envoy John Kerry on Wednesday touted a plan to use carbon credits to fund the replacement of coal-fired power with renewables in developing countries, with an estimated tens of billions of dollars to raise from global companies, as reported by the Financial Times. .

The United States also signaled a growing willingness to engage with poorer countries on the thorny issue of “loss and damage” funds, though US private officials were cautious in favor of a new funding mechanism. .

Kerry has also sought to revive stalled climate talks with China, after Beijing halted the engagement in retaliation for Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in August. He said he had spoken to his counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, since arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh this week, but formal talks had yet to resume.

U.S. lawmakers, including Pelosi and heads of the energy, trade and foreign affairs committees, arrived in Egypt on Thursday, following midterm elections that yielded better-than-expected results for Democrats.

Although likely to lose majority control of the House of Representatives, Democrats have won several flagship districts and could retain control of the Senate.

The results eased unease among climate advocates that the United States could be on track in the 2024 presidential election for a White House controlled again by Donald Trump, who has removed the United States from the Paris agreement and canceled its climate policy. Several Trump-endorsed candidates failed to win, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Lee Zeldin in New York.

Speaking from Sharm el-Sheikh this week, Senator Ben Cardin said it was “important” that US lawmakers were in Egypt as soon as the election was over.

Cardin said the United States had been “generous” in funding programs to help developing countries meet climate goals, but also needed to be “aggressive in addressing international commitments and doing its fair share.”

Ed Markey, the progressive Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said it was “an absolute necessity” for the United States to be a leader in international climate finance.

“We hear Pakistan, we hear Bangladesh, we hear the Marshall Islands, we hear all of these countries,” Markey said. “They are right. We need to do a lot more.

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