Xi and Biden: A “last minute” plan for a summit on climate change in the United Arab Emirates, according to a source familiar with the plans
Vice President Harris is planning to attend the COP28 summit in United Arab Emirates this week, according to a source familiar with the plans. The source was not authorized to speak publicly about the trip.
The president of China will not be going to this year’s talks, but he will be sending a delegation of high-level officials. Earlier this month, Biden and Xi agreed to resume work on tackling climate change, after suspending official collaboration on the topic last year due to broader tensions between the two nations.
When asked earlier this week if Biden would attend, the White House only said it had no updates on his schedule, and noted that special envoy John Kerry, national climate adviser Ali Zaidi, senior adviser John Podesta and others would be there.
The source characterized the decision to send Harris as “last minute” and pointed to reporting from a Nov. 26 story in the New York Times, which at that point said Harris had no plans to attend the conference.
When Biden took office, climate change was a top priority for him and he had made addressing it a key part of his campaign. Last year he signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will invest $369 billion into curbing emissions.
However, the administration continues to face calls from climate activists to take further action. Among those calling for Biden to attend this year’s conference is the youth-run advocacy group Sunrise Movement.
Young voters could play a crucial role in Biden’s reelection bid next year after helping propel him to victory in 2020. But their support isn’t guaranteed.
In recent months, Harris has made direct appeals to Gen Z and millennial voters, launching a cross-country college tour, where she talked about top issues for young Americans, including addressing the climate crisis.
Global Climate Talks Begin in Dubai, with an Oil Executive in Charge: The Unified Arab Emirates as a Key Player in Climate Change Negotiations
The goal of the meeting is to make progress on reducing emissions of planet-warming gasses, and come to an agreement about how to pay for the enormous costs of a hotter planet.
One of the most controversial aspects of this year’s talks is the person leading them. The petroleum-dependent host country, the United Arab Emirates, named the head of its main state oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, as the climate meeting’s president. That has raised concerns among Climate experts who point out that humans need to stop burning fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic climate change.
This year’s negotiations come at the close of the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. Extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, wildfires and heat waves, are increasingly deadly and disruptive.
“So many terrifying records were broken [in 2023],” said Simon Stiell, the head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the negotiations’ opening ceremony. “We are paying with people’s lives and livelihoods.”
Scientists warn that if greenhouse gas pollution isn’t stopped, Climate change can cause mass extinctions and runaway sea level rise by the end of the century.
Source: Global climate talks begin in Dubai, with an oil executive in charge
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Not all world leaders are attending this year’s negotiations. President Biden will not travel to Dubai, although Vice President Kamala Harris did announce last-minute plans to attend, along with special climate envoy John Kerry.
Even without their leaders present, the U.S. and China are expected to play major roles over the next two weeks. China emits more greenhouse gasses than any other country, and most of the new coal-fired power plants in the country are being built there. Coal must be eliminated in order to rein in warming, as it’s the most polluting of the major fuels.