(CN) — At a major United Nations summit on global warming in Glasgow, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday pledged to make his country a leader on tackling climate change and he issued an apology for the United States' withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement by the Trump administration.
Biden is among more than 120 world leaders attending a much-hyped climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, that has been billed as the “last best chance” for the world to find solutions to keep the planet from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
But many expect the conference will end in two weeks without major agreements even though global warming is now widely seen as an existential threat for humanity.
The summit is attracting big names, including tech billionaire Jeff Bezos, celebrities and thousands of climate protesters, most prominently Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg. The event is also marked by who is not there: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. They are leaders of some of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters and their absence signals that it will be unlikely major breakthroughs will be made.
Biden, meanwhile, arrived in Glasgow to tout the U.S. as the world's most ambitious leader on tackling climate change. But his message was weakened by his difficulties in getting his major climate change and infrastructure plans through Congress. Democrats are trying to pass $500 billion in funds for climate change projects.
Also, it did not help that he stumbled through his speech at the conference and at times seemed hardly able to read through his lines. He was seen before his speech closing his eyes for several seconds. Before going to Glasgow, he arrived in Rome on Thursday to visit Pope Francis ahead of a Group of 20 summit. This is his second overseas trip since he became president.
At a session after his speech, Biden issued an apology over former President Donald Trump's decision to drop out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement where nations agreed at the last major climate conference to ensure the world does not surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. Scientists have marked that as a critical threshold for humanity's survival on the planet.
“I guess I shouldn't apologize, but I do apologize for the fact that the United States – the last administration pulled out of the Paris accord,” he said. “It put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit.”
Only hours after entering the White House, Biden announced the U.S. was rejoining the Paris pact and since then he has made climate change a central pillar to his White House. He is hoping to use the Glasgow conference to showcase American leadership on global warming.
During his speech, Biden was in tune with other world leaders in calling for urgent action and stating this is a “decisive decade” to move away from fossil fuels and halt global warming.
“There's no more time to hang back or sit on a fence or argue amongst ourselves,” he said. “This is the challenge of our collective lifetimes, the existential threat to human life as we know it.”
He said the Glasgow conference “must be the beginning of a decade of innovation and ambition” to stop global warming. He said “climate change is not hypothetical” and that it must be confronted.
“We can keep the goal of limiting global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius within our reach if we come together,” he said. “If we commit to doing our part with each of our nations with determination and with ambition.”
Biden said the U.S. is on the path to becoming a net-zero nation by 2050 and that it will become a land of electric vehicles, carbon capture projects, wind mills and solar panels.
“We're planning both a short-term sprint to 2030 that will keep 1.5 Celsius within reach and for a marathon that will take us to the finish line and transform the largest economy in the world into a thriving, innovative, equitable and just clean energy engine of net zero for a net-zero world,” he said.
He also touted a new pledge by the U.S. and the European Union to reduce methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade and he said the U.S. will increase investments around the world to help poorer nations cope with climate change. Richer countries are coming under criticism for not upholding a pledge to provide $100 billion a year in so-called climate financing to help poorer parts of the world adapt to climate change.
“We're going to demonstrate that the United States is not only back at the table, but hopefully lead by the power of our example,” Biden said.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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