President Biden defined his vision of how the United States will feel the effects of slow global warming and emerging countries.
RAQUEL MARTÍN, PRESENTER:
President Biden addressed the annual United Nations climate convention in Egypt and told the audience that the United States will play a leading role in seeking to engage emerging countries in counteracting the maximum harmful effects of climate change. A week-long assembly in which there were many grim warnings about how carbon emissions cause higher temperatures, contributing to droughts, floods and other natural disasters.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: And so this collection will have to be the moment to re-engage our future and our shared ability to write a better story for the world.
MARTIN: NPR’s Ruth Sherlock is the convention and now she joins me from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Hi Ruth. Do we have Ruth?
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Good morning?
MARTIN: Hi, Ruth. I’m a little bit on the line.
SHERLOCK: Hi, I’m here.
MARTIN: Yes. Let me ask you: it’s one thing to communicate about leadership, it’s another to lead. We will communicate about the promises made through President Biden. But first, recap what his message was in that speech.
SHERLOCK: Okay. Well, he said he was in a position to lead the world in the energy transition of a critical decade in the fight against global warming. It focused a lot, Rachel, as you said in the introduction, a lot on emerging countries that are suffering the worst effects of climate change. Here’s what he said.
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BIDEN: That’s right. So many disasters. The crisis is hitting the toughest countries and communities that have fewer resources to respond and recover.
MARTIN: Few to respond and recover, Ruth.
SHERLOCK: That’s right. He announced more upcoming U. S. countries (inaudible) (inaudible) such as floods and droughts. And he said that the U. S. The U. S. government will also give more money to expand new renewable energy resources in those countries. And he talked about a precedent for the administration, which is to engage more personal corporations in the global north in financing projects that combat climate replacement in (inaudible), which corporations risk. He also said that the U. S. The U. S. government was on track to meet its own goal of halving carbon dioxide emissions compared to 2005. And, you know, that’s largely due to the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, which is full of provisions to make the U. S. economy look like a big deal. The U. S. government will be greener through renewable energy and other projects.
MARTIN: I just need to recap a little bit of what he said because we’re suffering with his line, yet he says the president talked about involving personal corporations to help fund systems in the world to come, which can be a little risky, some might be a risky investment. But those systems are designed to help those countries combat the effects of climate change. I mean, it’s going to be expensive for emerging countries to expand their own economies, that’s why they’re hunting the United States, its allies, and other countries. How is the U. S. proposed? Do the U. S. government do this, attract personal investment in those areas?
SHERLOCK: Well, one of the projects is something that John Kerry, the U. S. weather envoy, has been able to do with the United States. The U. S. government spoke out earlier this week. Under this proposal, private companies in the United States would buy so-called carbon credits, which constitute (inaudible) that have been reduced or removed from the atmosphere, but not necessarily through those same corporations. So it’s like an exchange. And according to those ideas, corporations would pay emerging countries to abandon the coal force to offset their own emissions. This is a debatable idea. You know, the carbon market is poorly regulated and some carbon offset projects amount to greenwashing. But U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has subsidized the U. S. -led plan as long as there are guarantees.
MARTIN: We’re going to have a lot of reporting on that. Thank you, NPR’s Ruth Sherlock.