WASHINGTON —
The Biden administration on Thursday pledged to
slash US greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, a
new target it hopes will spur other big emitter countries to raise their
ambition to combat climate change.
اضافة اعلان
The goal, unveiled at the start of a two-day climate summit
hosted by Democratic President Joe Biden, comes as the United States seeks to
reclaim global leadership in the fight against global warming after former
President Donald Trump withdrew the country from international efforts to cut
emissions.
It also marks an important milestone in Biden's broader plan
to decarbonize the US economy entirely by 2050 - an agenda he says can create
millions of good-paying jobs but which many Republicans say they fear will
damage the economy.
The emissions cuts are expected to come from power plants,
automobiles, and other sectors across the economy, but the White House did not
set individual targets for those industries.
"It's an economy-wide goal. There are going to be
multiple pathways to get there," one official told reporters on a
conference call describing the plan.
Sector-specific goals will be laid out later this year.
How the United States intends to reach its climate goals will
be crucial to cementing US credibility on global warming, amid international
concerns that America's commitment to a clean energy economy can shift
drastically from one administration to the next.
Biden's recently introduced $2 trillion infrastructure plan
contains numerous measures that could deliver some of the emissions cuts needed
this decade, including a clean energy standard to achieve net zero emissions in
the power sector by 2035 and moves to electrify the vehicle fleet.
But the measures need to be passed by Congress before
becoming reality.
Biden focused on restoring US climate leadership during his
campaign and in the first days of his presidency after Republican Trump, a
climate change skeptic, removed the United States from the Paris agreement on
global warming.
The new administration has come under heavy pressure from
environmental groups, some corporate leaders, the
UN secretary general and foreign governments to set a target to cut emissions by at least 50 percent this
decade to encourage other countries to set their own ambitious emissions goals.
Biden will announce the number at the start of a climate
summit on Thursday that will be attended by leaders from the world's biggest
emitters, including China.
World leaders aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold scientists say can prevent the
worst impacts of climate change.
One of the administration officials said with the new US
target, enhanced commitments from Japan and Canada, and prior targets from the
European Union and Britain, countries accounting for more than half the world's
economy were now committed to reductions to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius
goal.
"When we close this summit on Friday, we will unmistakably
communicate ... the US is back," he said.
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