NEWS SUMMARY, PAST BLAST
President Biden this week will pledge to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by the end of the decade, according to two individuals briefed on the plan, as part of an aggressive push to combat climate change, Washington Post reported
Asked for comment, a White House official said a final decision had not been made, according to the report.
COMMENT: A cut of 50% leaves wiggle room for the USA amid climate negotiations through talks in Glasgow, Scotland, set for November.
Those talks on the rulebook for the Paris climate deal could see developing nations, who have not used as much space in the atmosphere for heat-trapping gases, extract even more ambitious targets out of rich countries that have caused the climate crisis.
Some have said the U.S. could cut by 60%. See notes.
See link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/04/20/biden-climate-change/
STAGE IS SET FOR TIGHTER TARGETS GLOBALLY:
PAST BLAST RECAP
Jan. 29-31, 2021 –LONDON: OPINION — Call me an optimist (plenty have), but the diplomatic foxtrot taking place across the globe right now seems like some sort of delicate-aggressive climate-trade negotiation.
The U.S., China and the European Union know it’s time to cooperate aggressively on climate action and on the trade of goods.
Doing so would tackle half the world’s heat-trapping gas and give us all an outside chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.5C.
As climate activist Greta Thunberg rightly keeps reminding us, it seems very unlikely. But take a ride in my green-hydrogen-fueled helicopter for a few minutes and fly as high as possible — and you might be able to glean some hope.
“What we are seeing is the beginnings of a very comprehensive approach by China where climate negotiations will be a very important instrument of its wider foreign, trade and economic policy engagement, especially in a post-Covid world,” said Ashutosh Shastri, founder, director of EnerStrat Consulting, an energy and climate markets advisor. “They don’t take any of these things lightly.”
The substantial barriers to a climate deal between the three include choosing which currency gets to become the base currency of any global carbon market, agreeing some rules of green finance to limit greenwashing and agreeing green WTO/Paris carbon trading rules.
So the Renminbi, Euro and U.S. dollar are firmly in the frame and each will be fighting for a global role in the climate shift.
The U.S. and Europe are also using climate policy to further economic interests and climate-justice goals. Importantly, China is seeing a plan by Europe to install a carbon tax at its border as “an incentive” to engage rather than as a threat, which has apparently been its stance until this month.
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Other countries are looking to tighter emissions targets:
NOTES:
US CAN GO EVEN HARDER:
http://carrzee.org/2021/04/05/u-s-can-achieve-60-emissions-cut-by-2030-former-obama-official/