The tone was sometimes hesitant, the voice stammering, but Joe Biden did not elude Friday, at the podium of the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), the magnitude of the issues related to global warming. After listing the heat waves, fires, floods that have shaken his country and the rest of the globe this year, the American president acknowledged that “the climate crisis concerns the security of human beings, economic security, national security and the very life of the planet.
This speech completely breaks with the climatoscepticism of his predecessor Donald Trump who left the Paris climate agreement. “We can no longer plead ignorance as to the consequences of our actions or continue to make the same mistakes again,” insisted the American president, calling on “all countries” to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“He operates almost all the levers”
In this context, Joe Biden believes that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has led to a global energy crisis, “only reinforces the urgency for the world to get out of its dependence on fossil fuels”. He also assured that the United States was “on the way” to achieving its objectives of reducing its emissions by 50 to 52% by 2030. Then promised in the wake of billions to bend the curve of emissions of carbon dioxide from his own country.
Pierre Cannet, of the environmental NGO WWF, sees it as “a pledge given to other countries that the United States is implementing its new climate commitments at home… knowing that all the major emitters must go even further to honor the limitation of 1.5°C. »
“President Biden is pulling almost every lever at his disposal to carry out bold climate action at home,” comments Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute, an American think tank specializing in the environment. Whether it’s securing hundreds of billions of dollars in climate investment through the Cut Inflation Act, limiting methane emissions, or requiring all major federal contractors to setting science-based emissions reduction targets, he’s pushing forward by far the most daring climate agenda of any US president. »
US ‘underperforms’ commitments to vulnerable countries
And yet, Joe Biden’s speech left many observers hungry. “We expected the United States to announce much more in terms of international funding and aid to vulnerable countries, regrets Clément Sénéchal, who follows the negotiations on the spot for Greenpeace. Because these countries suffer climate damage caused by the greenhouse gas emissions of the most emitting nations and we know that the United States has the largest carbon footprint in the world per capita. »
VIDEO. COP 27: Macron wants to “put pressure” on “rich non-European countries”
“President Biden’s ambitious actions at home must now be matched by equally strong investments to advance climate action abroad,” admits Ani Dasgupta. The inconvenient truth is that the United States is grossly underperforming its international climate finance commitments. »
The head of the American think-tank believes that the work of this COP could even be “jeopardized” if the United States does not put more of its hand in the wallet to help developing countries “to recover from the devastating losses caused by climatic disasters.