The Earth Day summit will focus on harnessing ambition, finances, and innovation to tackle climate change.
President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, today hosts a two-day virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders, streamed live for public viewing.
So far, Biden has announced his promise to cut the US’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 50 per cent by 2030. This comes three years after Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement.
According to the White House, the purpose of the summit was stated as being to ‘underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action,’ and further underlines that it will be a ‘key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow’.
Biden has urged leaders to use the summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries will contribute to stronger climate ambition.
Indeed, President Xi Jinping of China made a late announcement that he would be attending the summit after a recent US-China statement promised joint co-ordination in combating climate change. China is the largest polluter globally as this is the first time the word ‘crisis’ as been used.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson highlighted that the UK plans to cut emissions by 78 per cent by 2035. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set a new target to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, surpassing the previous 40 per cent target. Vladimir Putin, although Earth Day has not been marked in Russia, pledged to make the country’s net greenhouse gas emissions less than the EU’s over the next 30 years.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg posted a video message to the assembled world leaders entitled ‘an emergency alert for the general public’, and stated ‘the bull**** of world leaders on this issue is the biggest elephant there’s ever been in any room’.
Today, Extinction Rebellion activists also smashed windows at the HSBC London headquarters in Canary Wharf, reportedly to draw attention to the bank’s links to the fossil fuel industry.
