World leaders to discuss climate crisis at the summit
The event will take place over two days in a videoconference format. White House spokesman Jen Psaki previously announced that the summit will be broadcast live "for everyone to see."
Washington notes that the summit will become "one of the largest virtual conferences of heads of state," at least under the current US administration. According to the United States authorities, the upcoming event will be an "important milestone" on the way to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will be held in November in Glasgow.
Summit agenda
As Psaki emphasized last week, US President Joe Biden wanted to host such a summit early in his presidency to ensure close coordination on climate change action with "key players in the international community and at the highest levels of government." One of the main topics of the meeting will be the consolidation of the efforts of the largest countries to reduce harmful emissions into the environment in order to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era and thus fulfill the key clause of the Paris climate agreement, to which Biden will return. announced on the day of his inauguration of the head of state.
In total, the summit is scheduled for five sessions, which are devoted to various topics related to solving the problem of climate change. Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris will open the summit on Thursday at 8:00 local time (15:00 Moscow time). According to the organizers, the first session will provide world leaders with the opportunity to talk about the challenges their countries are facing in connection with climate change, their efforts to overcome the climate crisis, as well as announce their steps in this area. According to the summit program published by the State Department, Russian President Vladimir Putin is only taking part in this meeting. Speeches are also scheduled at the first meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, British Prime Minister Borison Jonson , as well as leaders of a number of other countries.
The theme for the second meeting of the summit will be to mobilize funding from the public and private sectors to ensure the transition to zero greenhouse emissions and help vulnerable countries to cope with the effects of climate change. Participation in the second session, among others, will be attended by the President of the European Council Charles Michel, the head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, the President of the World Bank David Malpas, representatives of other international organizations and the private sector.
One of the aspects of the third session will be issues related to the solution of problems caused by climate change in the field of global security. The meeting is expected to be attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as well as heads of defense departments of a number of countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Iraq.
On Friday, on the sidelines of the conference, it is planned to discuss technological innovation and economic measures to combat climate change, including creating new jobs in the field of clean energy.
On the American side, in addition to Biden and Harris, about 20 administration officials will take part in the event, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, US President's Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Finance Minister Janet Yellen, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mallorcas, Director National Intelligence Agency Avril Haynes. Pope Francis, foreign ministers, heads of international and non-governmental organizations, and business representatives are also expected to speak at the conference.
The American administration confirmed on Wednesday that no bilateral meetings are planned within the framework of the summit. This is mainly due to the technical aspects caused by the fact that the event is being held online. Psaki previously explained that the US authorities also do not consider the upcoming summit as a forum "for the conclusion of bilateral deals."
Participation of the Russian President
As the Kremlin press service reported earlier, the Russian president at the summit "will outline Russia's approaches in the context of establishing broad international cooperation aimed at overcoming the negative consequences of global climate change." Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian leader, clarified that it is not planned to record Putin's speech for videoconference in advance. "This will be the president's live performance," he said.
New emissions target
As the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources in the US administration, Biden intends to announce on Thursday that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by almost half by 2030. According to the publication, in accordance with its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, the United States must reduce emissions by 26-28% by 2025 compared to 2005. Now Biden will announce that the United States will seek a 50% reduction in this indicator by the end of this decade. The United States is currently the second largest source of atmospheric pollution with carbon dioxide, after China, and is considered a catalyst for global warming.
The fact that by the time of the summit the Washington administration intends to "announce the setting [for itself] of an ambitious 2030 emissions target," the White House announced at the end of March, but did not specify at the time what specific targets were in question. In this context, it was noted that Biden, inviting world leaders to the summit, called for it to be "used as an opportunity to outline how their countries will also contribute to stronger climate [tackling] aspirations."
Important direction
The American administration has repeatedly stressed that it considers the solution of the problem of climate change to one of the key areas of its activity. Blinken said on Monday that Washington, in particular, intends to bring this topic to the center of its foreign policy and national security strategy.
Representatives of the Washington administration have also previously noted that they consider the fight against climate change as one of the areas for US interaction with Russia, as well as China. John Kerry, appointed by Biden to the post of special envoy for climate, said that Washington expects from other countries, including China and the Russian Federation, new steps to combat global warming.
As noted by The Washington Post, the upcoming summit will be not only an attempt by the US administration to intensify efforts to combat climate change, but also "the first big gesture of the new president [the US] as a world leader." "Biden is using the two-day meeting <...> to put the US back in the forefront of climate change efforts following a departure from this policy under [previous US President] Donald Trump. More broadly, Biden seeks to herald that The United States has returned to the forefront in international affairs - from environmental issues to human rights and global security, "the newspaper writes.
At the same time, the newspaper notes that, given the logistical and economic difficulties, it is "not a fact" that other countries will follow the US example if Biden announces the setting of a new goal to reduce air emissions. "This makes the summit risky from a political and economic point of view," states The Washington Post.
Official source World leaders to discuss climate crisis at the summit - International Panorama - TASS (tass.ru)
