US Vice president, Kamala Harris has told the Cop28 summit that the world is facing a “pivotal moment” in the climate crisis, after the US vowed to phase out coal plants and slash methane emissions.
Harris also announced a $3bn (£2.4bn) infusion to the Green Climate Fund, which aims to boost renewable energy and climate resiliency around the world, although this money would have to be agreed to by a US Congress, which is partly controlled by Republicans who oppose most measures to deal with the climate crisis.
However, she also came under attack for meagre assistance to developing countries and for its own booming oil and gas extraction industry.
The US vice-president who spoke on behalf of Joe Biden – who skipped the UN climate talks – said that Biden’s administration had made the “largest climate investment in the history of our country, and some have said the world” via the Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris warned of the dangers posed by opponents of climate action, which could be seen as a reference to Donald Trump, who is likely to be Biden and Harris’s electoral opponent next year, noting that the world is badly off track in efforts to slow the climate crisis.
“This is a pivotal moment – our action collectively, or worse our inaction, will impact billions of people for decades to come,” Harris told delegates, including dozens of world leaders, at the summit in the United Arab Emirates. “Around the world there are those who seek to slow or stop our progress. Leaders who deny climate science, delay climate action and spread misinformation.”
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Harris, who also used the trip to Dubai to discuss the war in Gaza, remains the highest-profile US attender of the talks, which have brought together representatives from nearly 200 countries to the two-week summit. Biden, who oversaw the lighting of the White House Christmas tree on Thursday, decided to not make the trip, citing various world crises including the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The American delegation also unveiled some major actions at Cop28, including sweeping new regulations to cut emissions of methane from its oil and gas sector and a decision to join a pledge not to build any new coal plants.
John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy also spoke about the US and global progress on climate while in Dubai.
“I feel optimistic, I really do,” he said on Saturday. “I am in Dubai with a sense that something different is really happening.” Kerry said the US under Biden had taken a global leadership role in pushing countries to cut emissions and curb deforestation.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
