By Gwyn Field, Sidwell Friends School
On April 22 and 23, the Biden Administration brought together 40 world leaders to discuss the climate crisis for the virtual 2021 Earth Day Summit. According to a press release on April 23 from the White House, President Biden convened the 17 Major Economies Forum (MEF), responsible for nearly 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and global GDP, who “were also joined by the leaders of countries that are especially vulnerable to climate impacts.”
Prior to the summit, the White House published a press release announcing the goals of the summit on climate change. These ambitions included “galvanizing efforts by the world’s major economies to reduce emissions during this critical decade to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 degree Celsius within reach”; “discussing opportunities to strengthen capacity to protect lives and livelihoods from the impacts of climate change”; and “mobilizing public and private sector finance to drive the net-zero transition and to help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts.”
In his speech during the summit, President Biden made a notable commitment, saying, “The United States sets out on the road to cut greenhouse gasses in half by the end of this decade.” Further, the administration declared in the summit, “President Biden’s Leaders Summit helped ensure the international community is working together to tackle the climate crisis and support the most vulnerable. Together with the new United States 2030 target along with those announced in the run-up to and at the summit, more than half of the world’s economy is now committed to the pace of action we need to limit warming to 1.5 degree C. And this coalition is growing.”
During the first day of the summit, leaders from around the world made significant declarations and pledges to help solve the climate crisis. President Xi Jinping of China announced that China would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and be carbon neutral before 2060. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, noted that Climate change is a “lethal reality for millions around the world” who are already facing intense consequences. Prime Minister, Boris Johnson of Britain said the country is “working with everybody from the smallest nations to the biggest emitters to secure commitments that will keep change to within 1.5 degrees. And I think we can do it.”
Although the Biden Administration made admirable commitments during the summit, enacting such climate policies has proved to remain difficult to accomplish. Somini Sangupta wrote in her New York Times article, “It has to persuade Congress to pour money into its climate plan, not just for building green infrastructure at home, but also for grants and loans it says it will offer to poor countries around the world to adapt to the effects of warming. Without serious money and rapid emissions reductions at home, analysts noted, the United States is likely to have a hard time persuading recalcitrant governments hooked on coal, oil and gas.”
In a New Yorker article about Biden’s summit, Bill Mckibben wrote, “Yes, there are lots of E.V. chargers to install and solar farms to construct, but there are also lots of pipelines and fracking wells to block. There are hundreds of thousands of big buildings that need to be retrofitted for energy efficiency—that’s a lot of landlords and developers to deal with. There are tens of millions of homes that will need to have their appliances replaced—and, if you think that vaccine hesitancy is hard to overcome, imagine induction-cooktop hesitancy.”
President Biden made promises and attempted to implement a sense of global unity in the fight against climate change throughout the summit. However, time will reveal whether such statements can withstand scrutiny.
About Author
