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BEIJING. – China is committed to achieving its major targets on fighting climate change, including realising a carbon emissions peak in 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality in 2060, calling for jointly building a community for man and nature, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the World Leaders’ Climate Summit yesterday.
In the face of unprecedented difficulties in global environmental governance, the international community must take unprecedented ambitions and actions, bravely shoulder responsibilities, and work together to build a community for man and nature, Xi told the summit from Beijing via video link.
US President Joe Biden pledged in his opening remarks at the summit to cut US greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, a target that would nearly double America’s previous commitment when signing the Paris Agreement, which is to reduce its emissions about 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Biden invited 40 world leaders to participate in the climate summit yesterday, which is also Earth Day, in a bid to put the US back to the forefront of global efforts to deal with climate change.
Some major climate issues such as reducing emissions to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 C within reach, mobilising public and private finance to drive net-zero transition and helping vulnerable countries cope with the climate impact, and spurring transformational technologies that can help reduce emissions, according to an agenda released on the website of the White House.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres started his address to the gathering by thanking the US for helping the world focus on the “existential threat” of climate change.
“Mother Nature is not waiting,” said Guterres, according to a prepared statement released in advance of his live remarks. “The past decade was the hottest on record. Dangerous greenhouse gases are at levels not seen in three million years.”
President Xi said; “We need to work on the basis of international law, follow the principle of equity and justice, and focus on effective actions. We need to uphold the UN-centered international system, comply with the objectives and principles laid out in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, and strive to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development… We must join hands, not point fingers at each other; we must maintain continuity, not reverse course easily; and we must honour commitments, not go back on promises.” – Global Times.
Online Reporter