For leaders abroad, new U.S. law restores climate credibility
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[August 19, 2022]
By Jasper Ward and Valerie Volcovici
NASSAU, BAHAMAS (Reuters) - The U.S.
climate bill signed into law this week restores the country's
credibility as a leading player in U.N. climate negotiations,
international officials said.
The $430 billion bill passed by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, after
more than a year of tense negotiations, lays out policies and
investments to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the world's largest
historical emitter.
Research suggests the measures could result in reducing U.S. emissions
to about 40% below 2005 levels by 2030 - not quite the 50% reduction
Biden had pledged under last year's Glasgow Climate Pact.
Years of failed Congressional action had left climate-focused presidents
reliant on executive actions, which can be easily undone by other
presidents or by courts. This made other countries wary of U.S.
emissions-reduction promises.
The new bill "puts America on track to achieve our climate goals and
encourage others in the world to increase their efforts," said John
Kerry, U.S. special envoy on climate change, on Twitter.
U.S. allies welcomed the milestone as a sign that the country is
matching its often-ambitious climate rhetoric with action.
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Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said that both the United States and
Australia, which passed its own climate change legislation earlier this
month, had taken "historic" steps to address emissions even as global
geopolitical and economic turmoil make some countries backslide on their
climate goals.
"The world’s wealthiest and most powerful countries generate 80% of
global emissions. They can act – when they choose to," Davis said before
the opening of a Caribbean climate summit on Tuesday.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told reporters following the summit
that she hopes the new U.S. law will help Americans understand the
severity of climate impacts to come, including stronger hurricanes that
threaten island nations like hers.
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A volunteer holds a placard during a
news conference on the climate crisis and the Inflation Reduction
Act at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 12, 2022.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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"The recognition of the issue is welcomed by us for sure," Mottley
said.
From across the world on the Pacific island nation Fiji, which faces
severe climate impacts including sea level rise, Prime Minister
Frank Bainimarama said on Twitter that the law was a "win for the
planet," even as he urged the United States to do more to account
for its emissions over the last century.
"President Joe Biden's new climate law is the USA's most important
show of solidarity to the Pacific since its re-entry to the Paris
Agreement," Bainimarama said.
But China, currently the world's largest carbon emitter, cast doubt
on whether the climate bill would help the United States achieve its
greenhouse gas reduction goals.
China this month called off diplomatic discussions with the U.S. on
climate change, halting what had been a rare instance of cooperation
between the two economic powerhouses.
In an exchange on Twitter, the Chinese foreign ministry's official
account questioned U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns for
celebrating the bill's passage on Twitter and calling on China to
follow with a law to reduce its emissions by 40% in less than 10
years.
"Good to hear. But what matters is: Can the U.S. deliver?" the
ministry said.
China has resisted past calls to speed up its emissions reduction by
arguing that the United States had no laws to carry out its climate
promises.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; additional reporting
by Gloria Dickie in London; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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