久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / Americas

Climate summit tackles 'existential crisis'

By ZHAO HUANXIN in Washington | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-04-23 10:45
Share
Share - WeChat
US President Joe Biden participates in a virtual Climate Summit with world leaders in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, April 22, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

One politician said, "The cost of inaction keeps mounting," another cautioned that "there's no vaccine against a polluted planet", while a young activist declared "the era of fossil fuels is over". The telethon-style livestream at the Earth Day summit echoed one theme: working together harder to limit the worst climate change.

The two-day virtual summit on climate change, hosted by US President Joe Biden, brought together 40 world leaders in an effort to address the "existential crisis" of climate disaster at a time when the world is still wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. But the cost of inaction keeps mounting," said Biden, who recommitted the US to the Paris climate accord three months ago, after his predecessor Donald Trump announced the withdrawal soon after taking office in 2017.

At the start of the summit, the White House unveiled the goal to cut US emissions up to 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, a key step for the Biden administration to move toward the ultimate goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Biden's climate envoy John Kerry later in the day said that the US will probably exceed that pledge.

Canada also raised its goal to a reduction of up to 45 percent by 2030 below 2005 levels, up from an earlier target of 30 percent, and Japan vowed to increase its target for cutting emissions to 46 percent by 2030, up from 26 percent.

"We must take action now. Because there's no vaccine against a polluted planet," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the summit.

The reduction targets are formally known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), through which governments are required by the 2015 Paris Agreement to commit to increasingly ambitious climate action.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for countries to submit ambitious new NDCs, which are their climate plans for the next 10 years, to be backed up with immediate concrete action.

"Let us now mobilize political leadership to move ahead together — to overcome climate change, end our war on nature and build lives of dignity and prosperity for all," Guterres said at the virtual summit.

While the US' NDC target is nearly double the pledge made under former president Barack Obama of 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, there is no guarantee that Biden's climate goals will be realized if another climate change-skeptical president is elected.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, addressing such a scenario at a pre-summit briefing Wednesday said that "the president has every intention of getting reelected", ensuring implementing policies of addressing climate issues and putting Americans back to work "go hand in hand".

Some researchers have said the US climate policy has been "unnervingly inconsistent", which means the Biden administration will need to work hard to build trust.

"In the US, climate change remains a partisan issue, with Democratic administrations introducing climate policies, only for these to be slowed down or reversed by Republicans," Antony Froggatt, a senior research fellow with the Chatham House, and his colleague Daniel Quiggin, wrote in an analysis at the end of last month.

This "stop-start approach" to climate mitigation and adaptation reduces the impact of domestic policies and diminishes the effectiveness of the US in the international process, they noted in a paper released by the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs on March 29.

At the summit, Biden stressed the economic benefits of stronger climate action in the "decisive decade", saying decisions should be made to stave off the worst outcomes by trying to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"Meeting this moment is about more than preserving our planet," Biden said. "It's about providing a better future for all of us."

Speaking at the meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told world leaders that there were "many issues on which we don't all see eye to eye" but dealing with climate change was not one of them.

"If we work together, we can do more than just address this crisis. We can turn it into an opportunity to improve our societies and deliver for people worldwide, and we can lay the foundation for cooperation on other shared challenges," he said.

In addressing the gathering via video link from Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China welcomes the United States' return to the multilateral climate governance process and looks forward to working with the international community, including the US, to jointly advance global environmental governance.

Xi reiterated the country's goal of striving to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, noting that the period of China's commitment to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality is much shorter than what many developed countries might need.

It will take 70 years for the EU, 45 years for the US, and about 30 years for China to move from carbon peak to net zero, Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, said last week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also said his country was committed to fulfilling its international obligations to combat climate change.

"Russia is genuinely interested in galvanizing international cooperation so as to look further for effective solutions to climate change as well as to all other vital challenges," he said.

Putin, however, pointed out, "It is no secret that the conditions that facilitated global warming and associated problems go way back."

The morning session of the first-day event also heard a plea from Xiye Bastida, a 19-year-old leader of Fridays for Future, an international youth movement.

Bastida told the world leaders that the climate crisis is the result of powerful people like them who are "perpetuating and upholding the harmful systems of colonialism, oppression, capitalism and market-oriented brainwashed solutions" to global problems.

Instead of just talking about climate change, world leaders "need to accept that the era of fossil fuels is over" and to make an "immediate" transition to renewable energy worldwide and an end to fossil fuel subsidies and infrastructure, said the Mexican-born climate activist.

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 99色视频在线观看 | 国产天堂亚洲精品 | 一a一级片| 亚洲图片偷拍区 | 美国特级毛片 | 成人免费xxx色视频 成人免费大片a毛片 | 欧美成人看片一区二区三区 | 久久免费精品 | 泰国一级毛片aaa下面毛多 | 国产在线观看午夜不卡 | 国产高清三级 | 国产伦码精品一区二区三区 | 午夜67194 | 久久色视频在线观看 | 成人黄色一级视频 | 性配久久久 | 夜色福利久久久久久777777 | 国产粗大猛烈18p | 国产在线91精品入口首页 | 精品久久精品久久 | 涩涩国产精品福利在线观看 | 亚洲国产精品久久综合 | 国产情侣真实露脸在线最新 | 国产亚洲小视频 | 米奇久久| 99久久精品6在线播放 | 日本在线观看网址 | 久久99在线 | 中文字幕一区二区小泽玛利亚 | 欧美一级一级片 | 亚洲在线观看免费 | 萌白酱福利视频在线网站 | 亚洲精品久久久久综合中文字幕 | 精品一区二区三区在线观看l | 成人国产在线看不卡 | 久久精品免费观看国产软件 | 女人一级特纯黄大片色 | 99久久99久久精品免费看子 | 贵州美女一级纯黄大片 | 国模在线播放 | 美女张开腿让我 |