By Enyichukwu Enemanna
President Joe Biden on Friday urged world leaders to “double down” on their resolve to fight global warming, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reinforces the need to phase out fossil fuels
Biden who spoke at an annual UN international summit on climate change, known as COP27, says retaining fossil fuel will amount to a repeated mistake.
“We can no longer plead ignorance to the consequences of our actions, or continue to repeat our mistakes,” Biden said.
This is coming at the same time Africa says the continent needs fossil fuel to removes its people from poverty.
The president’s brief attendance at COP27, was largely a victory lap as he emphasized new spending on clean energy initiatives that will “change the paradigm” for the United States and the rest of the world.
Biden glossed over how he’s pushed for more oil and gas production to bring down costs that have been politically troublesome at home, and fueled the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to fetch higher prices for its energy exports.
“This gathering must be the moment to recommit our future and our shared capacity to write a better story for the world,” Biden said.
Biden spent just three hours in the host country Egypt, including a meeting with the country’s leader, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, before continuing on an around-the-world trip.
He arrived Saturday morning for his next stop in Cambodia, where he participated in a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders, and then Indonesia for the annual Group of 20 summit of the world’s largest economies.
At the climate conference, Biden discussed a new supplemental rule that will crack down on methane emissions, expanding on a similar regulation his administration released last year. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming.
Biden also spotlighted one of his key domestic successes — the Democrats’ massive health care and climate change bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act.
The US commitment of some $375 billion over a decade to fight climate change gives Biden greater leverage to press other nations to fulfill their pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shift the global economy toward cleaner energy sources.
“The United States government is putting our money where our mouth is,” he said.
