Biden Cranks Up US Ambition As Summit Lifts Climate Hopes

President Joe Biden on Thursday ramped up US ambitions on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, putting the United States back at the forefront with a summit he hopes brings the world closer to limiting the worst climate change

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Apr, 2021 ) :President Joe Biden on Thursday ramped up US ambitions on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, putting the United States back at the forefront with a summit he hopes brings the world closer to limiting the worst climate change.

In a virtual Earth Day summit, Biden will announce that the world's largest economy will cut emissions blamed for climate change by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, officials said.

Biden, in a massive diplomatic undertaking for a three-month-old administration, is welcoming 40 leaders for two days of meetings, including the presidents of adversaries China and Russia and Pope Francis.

The new US target aims to "challenge the world on increasing ambition and combatting the climate crisis," an administration official, who spoke under customary condition of anonymity, told reporters.

Combined with announcements expected by other leaders, the official said the world will be closer -- but not yet on track -- to keeping the planet's temperature within 1.

5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, the level scientists say is needed to avoid the most severe effects of climate change.

"Over half the world's economy is now moving to cut emissions at a global pace needed to keep 1.5 C in reach," the official said. "Our coalition is growing." The prime ministers of Japan and Canada, which have forged early bonds with Biden, are expected to unveil their own new climate plans at the summit.

The European Union this week confirmed its own ambitious goals and former bloc member Britain on the eve of Biden's summit released the most far-reaching targets of any major economy with 78 percent cuts by 2035 from 1990 levels.

Britain in November will host a UN conference in Glasgow that aims to upgrade the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Under Paris, former president Barack Obama said the United States would cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025 -- a goal that Biden, his former vice president, has now dramatically scaled up.