President Joe Biden announced on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have been invited to the administration’s April climate summit. The president told reporters that he hasn’t specifically invited Putin or Xi to the summit, but that both leaders know they’re invited. Later, the White House issued a list of 40 world leaders, including Xi and Putin, who had been invited to the summit. On Friday, Biden spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and on Thursday, he spoke with EU member states.. Prior to reaching out to China and Russia, the White House prioritised communicating with close U.S. allies.
At the summit, which will be held remotely on April 22 and 23, the administration intends to announce a new carbon emissions target. During his campaign and via an executive order signed in January, Biden promised to host the climate talks. The summit takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, ahead of the United Nations’ global climate talks in November. Following China as the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States is the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide. The fourth-largest emitter is Russia. It’s uncertain if Russia and China will accept the summit invitations or be interested in collaborating with the US to reduce emissions.
Despite growing tensions between the countries in a variety of other fields, the White House has indicated that it wants to work with Russia and China on climate change. Beijing and Moscow have been singled out by the Biden administration as top national security threats to the United States on several occasions. Former President Donald Trump suspended federal efforts to fulfil the Obama administration’s pledge to reduce U.S. pollution by up to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. By 2030, the Biden administration is expected to set a more rigorous target for the country to achieve.
Biden has pledged to shift the United States’ economy to renewable energy and reduce pollution from coal, natural gas, and oil at the summit. After Trump declared in 2017, that he was pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement, Biden took the US back in. Biden has stated that the US will recommit to the agreement’s carbon reduction goals and will lead the drive to assist other countries in updating their own targets. In addition, President Biden has pledged to place the United States on a path to zero-carbon electricity production by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
He’s also put a moratorium on new oil and gas exploration on federal lands and offshore, and he’s expected to ask Congress for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that will act as the backbone of potential economic development. In meetings with European leaders earlier this month, Biden sent his climate envoy, former Secretary of State John Kerry, to lay the groundwork for the summit. The meeting takes place as the world falls behind in its attempts to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, which scientists claim is needed to prevent temperature tipping points that would make much of the earth uninhabitable. According to UN Climate Change, only about 30% of global emissions were protected by commitments made in recent months by about 75 countries and the European Union.
