{"id":128926,"date":"2021-09-17T14:12:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T21:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=128926"},"modified":"2021-09-17T14:12:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T21:12:48","slug":"president-biden-at-virtual-meeting-of-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=128926","title":{"rendered":"President Biden at Virtual Meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;It\u2019s good to see you all.  Good morning.  Thank you, Secretary Blinken.  And a special thanks to Special Envoy Kerry.  John has been a friend for a long time, and I have absolute trust in his leadership on this issue.  We\u2019re honored to host all of you today as a \u2014 as a follow up to the Leaders Summit on Climate we hosted back in April.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AsrcfPUEVhw\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That summit made good on a commitment that I made to the American people that the United States would return immediately to the world stage and address the climate crisis.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to show that we\u2019re at an inflection point, and that there\u2019s a real consensus \u2014 a real consensus that while the climate crisis poses an existential threat, there is a silver lining.<\/p>\n<p>The climate crisis also presents real and incredible economic opportunities to create jobs and lift up the standard of living of people around the world.<\/p>\n<p>And I want to thank you and your efforts so far that I \u2014 and I need \u2014 I need to tell you the consequences of inaction.  But you all actually know it.  It\u2019s somewhat presumptuous for me to say this.<\/p>\n<p>But over the last two weeks, I\u2019ve traveled across the United States to see the damage and destruction from record hurricanes, record floods, and wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>China continues across \u2014 excuse me \u2014 climate continues to change across Europe, Africa, and Latin America.  And we\u2019ve \u2014 and you\u2019ve endured massive flooding.  Fires have raged across Australia and the Amazon and the Russian tundra.  In Siberia \u2014 this sounds \u2014 I found it almost unbelievable \u2014 temperatures reached 118 degrees \u2014 118 degrees \u2014 inside the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n<p>The finding from the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change represents a code red for humanity.  And the time to act is really narrowing, as the Secretary just pointed out, to get to \u2014 close to a point of no return.  We don\u2019t have a lot of time.<\/p>\n<p>So we have to act \u2014 all of us.  We have to act, and we have to act now.<\/p>\n<p>When we met in April, we agreed to strengthen our efforts as we head to COP26 in Glasgow.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I\u2019ve called us together again to candidly assess our progress.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m grateful to those of you who\u2019ve \u2014 who\u2019ve strengthened your contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement and put forward ambitious targets for 2030. <\/p>\n<p>And thanks to your leadership, countries representing more than half of the global GDP are committed to taking steps that will keep us within reach of our joint pursuit of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n<p>But \u2014 but we know there\u2019s still a lot of work to do, and, if anything, our job has \u2014 in my view \u2014 has grown more urgent.<\/p>\n<p>The countries representing the Major Economies Forum account for 80 percent of global emissions.<\/p>\n<p>Without adequate commitments from every nation in this room, the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees slips through our hands.  And that\u2019s a disaster.<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s what I believe we have to do right now and what we \u2014 we\u2019re advancing here in the United States: We have to bring to Glasgow \u2014 we have to bring to Glasgow our highest possible ambitions. <\/p>\n<p>Those that have not yet done so, time is running out.<\/p>\n<p>For our part, in America, I\u2019m working to pass historic investment in \u2014 to modernize our more climate-resilient infrastructure, to build a clean energy future that creates millions of jobs and ushers in new industries of the future.<\/p>\n<p>As part of this work, the United States has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 50 and 52 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. <\/p>\n<p>And, you know, we\u2019ve set a goal that by 2025 [2035] our power sector will be with \u2014 free of carbon.  And 2030, 50 percent of cars sold in the United States, we believe, should be and must be electric vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>A further step we\u2019re working with the European Union and other partners to launch is a Global Methane Pledge to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030. <\/p>\n<p>This will not only rapidly reduce the rate of global warming, but it will also produce a very valuable side benefit, like improving public health and agricultural output. <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re \u2014 we\u2019re mobilizing support to help developing countries that join and pledge to do something significant \u2014 pledge and seize this virtual [vital] opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>You know, we\u2019ve already taken big steps domestically to tackle these emissions and create good-paying jobs, introduced by plugging leaks and capping abandoned wells and gas wells.<\/p>\n<p>We believe the collective goal is both ambitious but realistic.  And we urge you to join us in announcing this pledge at COP26.<\/p>\n<p>Now, you know, we also have to make additional progress to support developing countries. <\/p>\n<p>At the time, at the Leaders Summit in April, I announced the United States is working to double our climate finance, triple our support for adaptation by 2024 for developing nations. <\/p>\n<p>And I can assure you that we\u2019re looking for ways to go even further toward meeting the collective goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year from the developing world and for them [for the developing world].<\/p>\n<p>The next \u2014 our emphasis this year is going to be on building the \u2014 building ambition on the \u2014 on the road to Glasgow. <\/p>\n<p>Glasgow is not our final destination.  Whatever commitments we make at COP26, we must all resolve together in Glasgow to continue strengthening our ambition and our actions next year and throughout the decisive decade to keep us at one point \u2014 below 1.5 degrees and to keep that within reach.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why this forum, I believe, is so important.  And it was an important driver in the Paris Climate Agreement.  You know, it was \u2014 we got to continue to play a vital role going forward.<\/p>\n<p>At this crucial juncture \u2014 to start \u2014 the start of a decisive decade \u2013- I\u2019d like us to \u2014 I\u2019d like to use this forum to forge a political momentum and consensus to drive concrete actions in four key spheres of energy, industry, land, the ocean. <\/p>\n<p>And I want to be clear: This forum will \u2014 will complement, not substitute, for other forums. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, with respect to energy and industry, we will closely align our efforts with the work of the forums like the Clean Energy Ministerial and the Mission Innovation \u2014 both of which, I\u2019m proud to say, the United States will chair next year.<\/p>\n<p>I plan to kick off these efforts by bringing together ministers in January to discuss clean energy goals in power, transport, industry, building sector. <\/p>\n<p>We also want to focus on \u2014 on ocean initiatives in advance of Our Ocean Conference in \u2014 next February.<\/p>\n<p>You know, I \u2014 I plan to convene a leaders-level gathering so we can take stock of the collective progress we\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n<p>In closing \u2014 and thank you for your patience \u2014 I want to again underscore both the urgency of this moment and the tremendous opportunity before us.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to continuing this work \u2014 work together and hearing how you plan to contribute to the climate ambition the world so urgently needs.<\/p>\n<p>The time is now.  The time is now.  And thank you for your indulgence.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m now going to turn this over to Special Envoy John Kerry, but thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;It\u2019s good to see you all. Good morning. Thank you, Secretary Blinken. And a special thanks to Special Envoy Kerry. John has been a friend for a long time, and I have absolute trust in his leadership on this issue. We\u2019re honored to host all of you today as a \u2014 as a follow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Chrome-Legacy-Window-9172021-20847-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128928,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128926\/revisions\/128928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}