President Biden at COP 27 Pledges US Leadership on Solving the Climate Crisis

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Today at the 27th U.N. Climate Conference (COP27), President Biden pledged new initiatives to strengthen US leadership on confronting the climate crisis (see 1 below). The President also called for global action and commitments to help developing countries cope with the problems that were created by industrialized nations.

The Biden plan also will continue and support the global auto industry’s nascent but fast-growing moves to take climate change seriously. President Biden said he believes that tackling the climate crisis and keeping the 1.5-degree C temperature goal within reach requires “all hands on deck” demanding the mobilization of local, state, and national governments, the private sector, and philanthropies.

The bold initiatives ended a week when the Climate Change and Election Denying Republican party – the Gope nope dopes – were thumped in mid-term elections that they and their propaganda outlets falsely predicted would be a red tsunami. 

“Here in Egypt, the Great Pyramids and the ancient artifacts stand as testament to millennia of human ingenuity. We see our mission to avert climate catastrophe and seize a new clean energy economy not only as an imperative for our present and future, but through the eyes of history,” President Biden said in his opening.

“According to the World Meteorological Organization, the past eight years have been the warmest on record. The United States, in the United States, we’re seeing historic drought and wildfires in the West, devastating hurricanes and storms in the East. Here in Africa, here in Africa, home to many nations considered most vulnerable to climate change, food insecurity and hunger follows four years of intense drought in the Horn of Africa.

“Meanwhile, the Niger River in West Africa, swollen – swollen because of more intense rainfall, is wreaking havoc on fishing and farming communities. In Nigeria, flooding has recently killed 600 people; 1.3 million more are displaced. Seasonal livestock migration routes have been used for hundreds of years are being altered, increasing the risk of conflict between herders and local farming communities” Biden said.

“The climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security, and the very life of the planet. So today, I’d like to share with you how the United States is meeting the climate crisis with urgency and with determination to ensure a cleaner, safer, and healthier planet for all of us,” Biden said to thunderous applause.

Initiatives Biden Announced

• Bolstering Global Climate Resilience – including doubling the Us pledge to the Adaptation Fund to $100 million and announcing over $150 million in new support to accelerate the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) efforts across Africa. These build on the more than $20 million that President Biden has announced this year to accelerate PREPARE’s work in Small Island Developing States.
• Accelerating Global Climate Action, including launching a new initiative to support Egypt in deploying 10 GW of new wind and solar energy while decommissioning five GW of inefficient natural gas generation.
• Strengthening proposed domestic methane regulations in the oil and gas sector that would reduce Us methane from covered sources by 87% percent below 2005 levels as well as other domestic and international action to tackle methane emissions and advance the Global Methane Pledge.
• Announcing new actions that would make the United States the first national government to require major suppliers to set Paris Agreement-aligned emissions reduction goals – leveraging the Federal Government’s over $630 billion in annual purchasing power.

Catalyzing Investment at The Scale Required to Tackle the Climate Crisis

• Launching new approaches that strategically use public finance to unlock billions in private investment, such as the so-called “Climate Finance +” initiative that will support developing countries in issuing green bonds;
• Launching the Sustainable Banking Alliance to deepen developing countries’ sustainable financial markets; and
• Making strategic investments that help to mobilize billions in private finance and facilitate the export of Us clean technologies.

Engaging All of Society in Tackling the Climate Crisis

• Launching a Climate Gender Equity Fund,
• Launching an Indigenous Peoples Finance Access Facility, and
• New exchanges to empower youth across the world to be leaders on resilience and clean energy in their communities.

1 US Homeland Actions

• Today, the Us Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is strengthening the agency’s proposed standards to cut methane and other harmful air pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry. If finalized, these standards will protect workers and communities, maintain and create high-quality, union-friendly jobs, and promote Us innovation and manufacturing of critical new, all while delivering significant economic benefits through increased recovery of wasted gas. The new proposal also includes a ground-breaking “Super-Emitter Response Program” that would require operators to respond to credible third-party reports of high-volume methane leaks. (Administration claims)
• Updating the US Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan – Building upon the first-ever Us Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan released at COP26, President Biden today also unveiled an updated plan to achieve deep methane reductions in the United States, while cutting consumer costs, spurring job creation, and securing economic gains, in the Administration’s view. The plan includes more than $20 billion of new investments to reduce methane emissions from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriations. The updated plan outlines how the Administration is taking more than 50 actions to tackle methane emissions at home.
• Welcoming the more than 130 countries which have now endorsed the Global Methane Pledge: The GMP now covers more than half of global methane emissions and more than two-thirds of the global economy. “In its first year, the GMP has spurred implementation including significant progress on national methane action plans and new landmark policies and initiatives across all major sectors,” a White House fact sheet claimed.
• Launching a Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuels: Launched alongside the European Union, Japan, Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the declaration unites major energy importers and exporters to minimize flaring, methane, and CO2 emissions across the fossil energy value chain to the fullest extent practicable. These countries will support enhanced policy action, cooperation on methane measurement, and public and private sector engagement to achieve these goals.
• Welcoming the launch of the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS): Today, the UN Environment Programs’ International Methane Emissions Observatory launched MARS, a new system to tackle methane “super-emitters” by providing countries and companies with data to enable action on major emissions sources.
• Welcoming enhanced action on methane mitigation from international partners, including Nigeria, Canada, and Mexico: All of these countries are among the 20 largest emitters of methane in the oil and gas sector. Nigeria celebrated the finalization and publication of its first-ever methane regulations in its oil and gas sector. Canada reaffirmed its commitment to reduce oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75% by 2030 below 2012 levels through strengthened regulatory action and industry partnerships.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency and PEMEX also launched cooperation to reduce methane emissions in Mexico’s oil and gas sector, tackling an emissions source that rivals the emissions from Mexico’s entire power sector.
• The U.S Trade and Development Agency is also supporting partners in methane abatement by using what’s said to be the best-in-class technical expertise of Us industry in this area, including by funding a series of three reverse trade missions in 2023 to familiarize partners with the latest US methane abatement technologies and services.