In what was likely the long-awaited intervention at the United Nations Climate Change Summit, COP27, which took place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Joe Biden pledged to put the United States back in the lead in the fight against climate change, guaranteed that the country is on schedule to fulfill its commitments to reduce carbon emissions enshrined in the Paris Agreement and has declared war on methane, a greenhouse gas that is one of the main contributors to global warming. However, Biden’s intervention led to the delegations of the most vulnerable countries being defrauded by failing to address the issue of the fund to compensate for losses and damages claimed by the poor countries of the South, on a day when yet another alarming report was released on the increase in global CO2 emissions.
The US president urged world leaders to “do more” to align with the targets of limiting global warming to 1.5°C set out in the Paris Agreement. And he assured that the United States is “on track” to fulfill its pledge to reduce emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. The US will do its part to avoid “climate hell,” he said, referring to a warning made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres earlier this week.
And he used the speech to unveil a range of new measures, including a plan to reduce methane emissions in the US, support new early warning systems for extreme weather events in Africa and an agreement to launch new solar and wind projects in Egypt. in exchange for the country to shut down gas plants and reduce emissions.
In a 22-minute speech, interrupted briefly by a group of protesters, the US leader presented his administration’s work on climate issues, praising the adoption of a massive $369 billion spending package – in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act — to make the US economy greener.
Ahead of the summit’s arrival in Sharm El Sheikh, the Biden administration unveiled a domestic plan to crack down on the U.S. oil and gas industry’s emissions of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, in a move that has fueled months of lobbying. defied. businesses. “Reducing methane by at least 30% by 2030 may be our best chance of maintaining the 1.5°C target,” he said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has enacted a bill that will see the U.S. reduce the amount of methane emissions from oil and gas operations by 36 million tons by 2035—more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by all coal-fired power plants in a single year.
Although methane gets much less attention than carbon dioxide, it is 80 times more potent in warming the atmosphere in the short term. Last year, more than 100 countries joined a coalition led by the US and Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030.
CO2 emissions will increase by 1% in 2022
Despite the list of intentions paraded by Biden, the lack of any reference to the claimed compensation fund for losses and damages for the poorest countries was noted and criticized, on a day when a new scientific report came out to sound the alarm about the targets of the Paris Agreement. Fossil CO2 emissions will increase by 1% this year compared to 2021, according to the Global Carbon Project report presented at the summit. According to this document, if emissions remain this high, the world faces a 50% risk of exceeding the target of a 1.5°C temperature increase over the next nine years.
This is in stark contrast to the recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which suggests that global emissions need to fall by 45% by 2030 to keep the temperature rise below 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial climate, as agreed in Paris.
with authorities
Source: DN
