Studies have already shown that achieving the US goals announced so far would take a substantial overhaul of current domestic policies.
If pledges by the participants in the “Leaders’ Summit on Climate” hosted by President Joe Biden on 22 and 23 April turn out to be sincere and practical, a beginning may have been made to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to escape the worst impacts of climate change. The enhanced climate action may even create good paying jobs, advanced innovative technologies, and help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change. The Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, which have remained inadequate so far may get upgraded. But it is doubtful whether come November to consider action at the Glasgow Conference of Parties, the pledges will be formalised and implemented. It is also possible that, as it happened in Copenhagen in 2009, the developing world would reject them as conspiratorial and unrealistic and demand technology and finance for developing countries, further impoverished by the pandemic.
Apart from the US-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80% of global emissions and global GDP, President Biden invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net zero carbon economy. A small number of business and civil society leaders were also invited to the Summit.
President Biden himself made a pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050, saying that it is “a moral imperative, an economic imperative at a moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities”. Mr Biden promised to reduce US emissions by at least 50% by 2030, more than doubling the country’s prior commitment under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought concrete action at a “high speed” and on a large scale to combat climate change, and asserted that India was doing its part to deal with the challenge. Mr Modi also said that sustainable lifestyles and guiding philosophy of “back to basics” must be important pillars of the economic strategy for the post-Covid era. Mr Modi said that he and President Biden are launching the “India-US climate and clean energy Agenda 2030 partnership”. “Together, we will help mobilise investments, demonstrate clean technologies, and enable green collaborations,” he said.
“As a climate-responsible developing country, India welcomes partners to create templates of sustainable development in India. These can also help other developing countries, who need affordable access to green finance and clean technologies,” he said. Modi said humanity is battling a global pandemic right now and the summit is a timely reminder that the grave threat of climate change has not disappeared. Mr Modi did not provide a new target but re-confirmed the country’s vow to install 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.
Leaders of countries like Brazil, Canada and Japan made commitments to curb domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, who was once a “second Trump”, vowed to end illegal deforestation in the country by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. He has asked the US to provide USD 1 billion to pay for conservation efforts in the Amazon rainforest.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country will pledge to curb emissions by 46% by 2030 compared with 2013 levels. Japan, the world’s fifth largest emitter, previously committed to a 26% reduction, a goal that was criticized as insufficient. “Japan is ready to demonstrate its leadership for worldwide decarbonization,” Suga said at the summit. Like the US, Japan has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed that Canada will reduce emissions by 40% to 45% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, a major increase from its previous pledge of 30%. “We will continually strengthen our plan and take even more actions on our journey to net zero by 2050,” Trudeau said during the summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin broadly pledged to “significantly” reduce the country’s emissions in the next three decades and said Russia makes a big contribution in absorbing global carbon dioxide. Mr Putin also said the country has nearly halved its emissions compared to 1990 and called for a global reduction of methane, “The fate of our entire planet, the development prospects of each country, the well-being and quality of life of people largely depend on the success of these efforts,” he said.
China’s President Xi Jinping re-affirmed commitments to peak emissions before 2030 and go carbon neutral by 2060. During a recent visit to China, the American Czar for climate change, John Kerry and Chinese officials had issued a Joint Statement that the two sides would work together on climate change despite division on issues like trade and human rights. The two countries “are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,” the statement said. But soon after, both sides expressed apprehensions about differences, particularly on the use of coal.
South Korea President Moon Jae In said that Korea will end public financing of coal-fired power plants overseas and plans to unveil a stronger emissions reduction pledge. Pledges were made by Israel and China also to reduce the use of coal in their energy mix. At the same time, consumption of coal rose by 4.5% this year.
Studies have already shown that achieving the US goals announced so far would take a substantial overhaul of current domestic policies. The US would need to virtually eliminate its use of coal for electricity and replace millions of gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles. Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, called the US plan to tackle climate change “our generation’s moonshot”. Mr Biden is pushing his cabinet to implement other climate change policies, including rules limiting fossil fuel extraction on public lands and new financial regulations intended to curb investment in heavily polluting industries. But whether these plans will be approved by the US Congress remains uncertain. The projections are that the rate of global carbon emissions will stay the same through the next decade. The US will have to invest heavily on technology to overcome the effects of climate change.
China has dominated market share across clean technology sectors, from battery cell manufacturing to wind turbines.
President Biden has kept his promise to initiate a global effort on climate change by returning to the Paris Agreement and by establishing a time frame for reaching a net zero carbon world. He seems to have persuaded many of his allies and even China and Russia to follow suit. But a huge number of issues need to be tackled if the voluntary emission cuts announced by the developing countries have to be enhanced. It will need more than setting examples as many of them need resources and technology to change their energy mix. John Kerry said, when he was in India, that the needs of the developing countries would be taken into account. But in Glasgow, the principles agreed in Rio in 1992 like “common but differentiated responsibilities”, “per capita emissions” and “meeting of incremental costs to adopt environment friendly technologies” will reverberate louder than the pledges announced in Washington. As Mr Modi reiterated, “sustainable lifestyles and guiding philosophy of ‘back to basics’ must be important pillars of the economic strategy for the post-COVID era.”
T.P. Sreenivasan, a former ambassador of India, was the Vice Chairman of the COP from 1992 to 1995.