Climate activists dismissed the goals set by President Joe Biden and slammed his remarks at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) as woefully inadequate to address the looming disaster.
One of the most vocal US activists, environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement, stressed that before lecturing others, Washington should itself set and fulfill more ambitious commitments toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Biden pointed during his speech in Glasgow that the US is committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade as compared to the 2005 levels.
Addressing the COP26 climate summit on 1 November, he pointed that the world has the capacity to build an equitable clean energy future, noting these efforts would provide clean air and a healthy ecosystem for the planet.
According to Biden, the US is trying to make it affordable for Americans to save on their bills by installing solar panels and weatherising their homes.
Sunrise Movement’s executive director Varshini Prakash underscored that Biden came to Glasgow empty-handed, which is humiliating, and pointed that he must immediately pass his full Build Back Better Act, before telling world leaders what to do and when on climate.
According to Prakash, mass protests around the full passage of Biden’s climate and jobs agenda that had begun last month ate still ongoing, demonstrating the broad support for bold climate action.
Americans continue to pressure Biden and his Democrats to pass the reconciliation package that expands Medicare, provides a pathway to citizenship and properly addresses the climate crisis.
Biden announced in April that as part of its new commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement – that Trump withdrew the US from in 2017-the country would halve greenhouse emissions by 2030, doubling the nationally determined contribution of up to 28% of US emissions by 2025 announced under former President Obama.
Biden returned the US to the Paris Climate Agreement in February, soon after he became president.
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