Biden pledges for US greenhouse gas emissions cut
US President Joe Biden opened a global summit on climate change by announcing that the United States will aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half, based on 2005 levels, by the end of the decade.
That aggressive 2030 goal, which the White House is framing as a 50-52 percent reduction, will be formalized in a document called a nationally determined contribution or NDC. Biden administration has come under growing pressure to set an aggressive goal of at least a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases based on 2005 levels to make up for languishing US emissions cuts.
That pressure came from both environmental advocates and a group of 300 corporations that recently signed on to a letter calling on the administration to cut emissions in half by 2030, double the goal set by Obama.
International non profit the Climate Group CEO Mr Helen Clarkson said “It’s fantastic to see President Biden set out this commitment which is what the world needs as the US re-joins the global consensus on climate. In the last four years, businesses, states, and individuals across the US have delivered ambitious climate action in the absence of federal leadership.
With support from an ambitious Administration, so much more can be done. “However, urgent work is needed to deliver these emissions reductions. This is the Climate Decade, we must halve emissions by 2030. We look forward to seeing the policies that the Administration implements, matched by investment plans, to achieve these goals.”
The NDC is a public commitment to address climate change made by each country that signed on to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which the US formally left last year at the behest of then-President Mr Donald Trump and reentered this year after Mr Biden took office.
