In a virtual climate summit on Thursday, the United States committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by 2030 with a target “of net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050,” President Biden said.
US commits to cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030
During remarks at the two-day White House virtual climate summit attended by dozens of world leaders on Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States is aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 as well as achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as part of the Paris Climate Pact, which the US rejoined in February, NBC reported.
“These steps will set America on a path of a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050,” President Biden said during his opening remarks of the two-day summit on Thursday, which was attended by 40 leaders from around the world and will continue on Friday, USA Today reported. “Scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade, this is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of a climate crisis,” President Biden continued.
In further remarks, Biden stated that the United States is committing itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50%-52% below its 2005 emissions levels by 2030, CNN reported.
Greenhouse gas around the world did not slow enough during pandemic to improve climate trends
In the early part of 2020, in the nascent months of the pandemic, when people around the globe hunkered down indoors, research institutes and space agencies have the world marveling at satellite images showing the dissipation of air pollution over major cities. We were even told that nature was healing from the damage humankind had imposed upon it, space.com reports.
But a new report was released on Monday showing that the optimism of a healing planet, in terms of climate change, was premature at the very least, if not wishful thinking. The report was entitled The State of the Global Climate 2020 and was released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations body promoting international cooperation in atmospheric science, climatology, and hydrology.
Despite the visible reduction of air pollution, concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise in the earth’s atmosphere in 2020. Report showed that concentrations of carbon dioxide had risen by 2 million parts, reaching 410 parts per million in 2020 compared to 408 parts per million in 2018.
