News / Foreign Policy

US rejoins coalition to achieve 1.5C goal at UN climate talks

Tuesday, 02 November 2021 7:13 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 02 November 2021 7:13 PM ]

World Leaders pose for a family photo at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland on November 1, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

US President Joe Biden has rejoined the High Ambition Coalition with the aim to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius.

The US rejoined the coalition during the UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, on Tuesday.

The group, which includes scores of countries pursuing the Paris agreement, hopes to gain global support of limiting global warming by establishing net zero global emissions by the second half of the century.

Speaking at the summit, Biden apologized for former president Donald Trump's exit from the landmark Paris Climate Accord and said his administration was planning a long-term strategy to balance at net-zero the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere by 2050.

Biden tells leaders US will meet climate goals, while his agenda falters at home

Biden on Monday sought to assure world leaders the US would fulfill its promise to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade, but a setback at home heightened uncertainty about his ability to follow through.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced new regulations aimed at "sharply" reducing methane emissions by the oil and natural gas industry. We plan "comprehensive new protections to sharply reduce pollution from the oil and natural gas industry," the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.

"The proposed rule would reduce 41 million tons of methane emissions from 2023 to 2035, the equivalent of 920 million metric tons of carbon dioxide," it added. The new regulations require states to "develop plans to limit methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide."

The EPA said it aimed to lay out the finalized plan in the next two months.

"As global leaders convene at this pivotal moment in Glasgow for COP26, it is now abundantly clear that America is back and leading by example in confronting the climate crisis with bold ambition," announced EPA Administrator Michael Regan.

The EPA announcement came during Biden's attendance at the COP26 summit, where dozens of countries joined an American and European Union pledged to cut emissions of methane -- the most potent greenhouse gas -- by 30 percent this decade.

Julie McNamara, deputy policy director in the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists welcomed the Biden administration's announcement. "Today's actions by EPA Administrator Regan take important strides in achieving that necessary progress."

Trump, who pulled the US out of the Paris accord, is a stubborn disbeliever of the devastating effects of climate change.