Twenty-three of the world’s largest economies will be represented at the virtual meeting, as well as other countries participating in climate pledges, officials said. Several foreign countries are expected to announce tightened climate targets in line with the Paris agreement.
The US and the European Union will launch the next step of their global methane pledge to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas by 30% by 2030. The so-called energy path, officials said, will focus on eliminating routine fossil fuel flaring operations and focus on ways to reduce methane pollution in the oil and gas sector.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. Climate scientists say cutting methane emissions is a necessary but easy way to reverse the climate crisis.
Biden will also announce a new global initiative aimed at raising $90 billion to develop and scale up new clean technologies for decarbonisation, officials said. The US will spend $21.5 billion on this effort, with funds already approved in Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The US will also invite other countries to join the president’s previously announced domestic target that by 2030, half of vehicles sold in the US will be battery-electric, fuel-cell-electric or plug-in hybrid. officials said. The goal of Biden’s zero-emission vehicles is non-binding and some other countries are taking a more aggressive approach to it. For example, the European Union is considering its own stricter standards to ban the sale of new combustion engine cars by 2035.
“These actions are all the more urgent after Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted energy prices, pressured economies with rising prices and threatened vulnerable communities with severe food shortages,” said a senior government official.
Countries participating in Friday’s meeting are China, Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which will host COP27 in November.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the meeting; China will instead be represented by its climate envoy Xie Zhenhua, officials said.
“We are committed to working with them on topics such as their plan to tackle methane emissions in China for the first time,” the official said. “We are of course also working on other topics, including the energy transition and illegal deforestation in China.”
The US faces a steep path to meet its own emissions target
As promising as Biden’s early goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the US were, progress toward achieving them has been mixed, independent analysis shows.
To do that, the impartial research firm Rhodium Group found that three key things needed to be done: Biden would have to pass massive clean energy investments to Congress, pass several ambitious federal regulations to cut emissions from things like vehicles, power plants, and industry, and states should make significant progress.
Rhodium Group partner John Larsen told DailyExpertNews that the things Biden has been able to do so far — including passing his bipartisan infrastructure bill and getting through some government regulations — are still nibbling on the brink of his Parisian commitment.
“The big-ticket items are all in a holding pattern or very early stage,” Larsen told DailyExpertNews.
The biggest item that has been undone is a climate and clean energy package to be passed by Congress. Conversations Between West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a restricted spending package likely to include clean energy tax credits are moving forward, but so far it’s unclear if they’ll come to a deal.
The timeline to pass such legislation is extremely narrow, as Democrats risk losing their majority in November.
Larsen said Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency has several regulations that are in the works or yet to begin that could put a dent. But even that has roadblocks.
Another impediment to progress has been the looming Supreme Court decision over the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which could limit the government’s resources to reduce planet-warming gases in the electricity sector.
“When [White House national climate adviser] Gina McCarthy says the federal government has all the tools to achieve the goal, it’s almost certain they have them,” Larsen said. “But how they use these tools and how ambitious they choose to be will almost certainly be affected. by whether there is legislation.”