President Joe Biden tried to hammer out the world’s next steps against rapidly worsening climate change in a private, virtual session with a small group of other global leaders Friday, and announced a new U.S.-European pledge to cut climate-wrecking methane leaks.
Grim findings from scientists this year that the world is nearing the point where the level of climate damage from burning oil, gas and coal becomes catastrophic and irreversible “represent a code red for humanity,” Biden said at the beginning of the session.
“We have to act and we have to act now,” Biden said, speaking on a specially erected White House set that showed virtual arrays of solar panels in the background and a wall of other global leaders listening on screens.
He cited his tour earlier this month of communities hit by relentless wildfires in California and Hurricane Ida in the northeastern U.S. and the Gulf — evidence that warnings of natural disasters worsening in number and severity as the climate warms already are becoming reality.
“Over the last two weeks, I’ve traveled across the United States to see the damage and destruction,” Biden said. “Climate continues to change across Europe, Africa and Latin America, and you’ve endured massive flooding.”
Drought and rising temperatures have made California’s wildfire season virtually year-round now, state fire officials say. And a study out this year concluded sea rise caused by global warming contributed $8 billion in additional damage to 2012′s Superstorm Sandy.
The Biden administration billed the meeting as a chance for some of the world leaders to strategize how to achieve big, fast cuts in climate-wrecking petroleum and coal emissions. The administration also is trying to re-establish the United States’ Major Economies Forum — a climate group set up by President Barack Obama and revived by Biden - as a significant forum for international climate negotiations.
Friday’s meeting followed a much bigger and splashier virtual White House climate summit in April that saw scores of heads of governments — representing allies and rivals, and big economies and small — making sweeping speeches about the need for action against climate change.
The provided list of Friday’s attendees included only nine leaders: those of Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the European Council, European Union Commission and United Nations.
Drought and rising temperatures have made California’s wildfire season virtually year-round now, state fire officials say. And a study out this year concluded sea rise caused by global warming contributed $8 billion in additional damage to 2012′s Superstorm Sandy.
“Over the last two weeks, I’ve traveled across the United States to see the damage and destruction,” Biden said. “Climate continues to change across Europe, Africa and Latin America, and you’ve endured massive flooding.”
The Biden administration billed the meeting as a chance for some of the world leaders to strategize how to achieve big, fast cuts in climate-wrecking petroleum and coal emissions. The administration also is trying to re-establish the United States’ Major Economies Forum — a climate group set up by President Barack Obama and revived by Biden - as a significant forum for international climate negotiations.
Friday’s meeting followed a much bigger and splashier virtual White House climate summit in April that saw scores of heads of governments — representing allies and rivals, and big economies and small — making sweeping speeches about the need for action against climate change.
The provided list of Friday’s attendees included only nine leaders: those of Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the European Council, European Union Commission and United Nations.