COP26: Biden's credibility on a law against the climate emergency is at stake

By Josh Lederman -

EDINBURGH, Scotland - President Joe Biden attends the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland this Sunday, with his credibility at stake on joint action to curb the impact of global warming.

Biden has made no secret in recent months of his goal of arriving at the event, known as COP26, with a powerful law that will demonstrate his commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

If there was no law involved, he hoped to have at least one vote in favor in Congress.

And if that vote failed to materialize, have the unanimous support of the Democrats.

However, the president lands at the summit without any of this because the disputes generated within his own party have colored the country's position in combating the climate emergency with ambiguity.

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters about the pause in the trade war over steel and aluminum tariffs during the G20 leaders' summit, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, in Rome. Evan Vucci / AP

The only thing Biden can say with certainty is that the United States appears willing to make the largest investment to date in the world:

"He will go there to meet people knowing that the United States is fully committed again and that they are going to have to run to keep up," Gina McCarthy, the president's national climate adviser, told MSNBC after The White House will unveil its new spending framework on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement was globally condemned and has not yet been entirely forgotten.

One of Biden's first moves in the White House was to rejoin the treaty, but the international community has watched the chaotic back and forth that the Democratic spending and climate bill has gone through, undermining its credibility.

"China and other countries question the ability of the United States to put into practice what it has committed to do and use it as a reason not to be forced to do more than what it has committed to do," said Alden Meyer, expert. in UN climate negotiations in the European think tank E3G.

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and Europe agree to eliminate taxes on steel and aluminum to reduce consumer costs]

Biden has promised that the United States will cut greenhouse gas emissions by

But whether or not to do so depends largely on how the fight for spending unfolds in Congress. .

The stakes could not be more momentous.

Scientists agree that if this summit fails the world would be trapped in its struggle to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.

Even Biden's climate envoy John Kerry has stressed that

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"I think it's critical to have low expectations for Glasgow, but any step forward should be celebrated," said Andrea Zanon, a former World Bank consultant and clean energy investor who has attended multiple UN climate summits. "These events, unfortunately, are messy. They are very bureaucratic. But

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For Biden, getting a powerful weather bill through Congress was destined from the outset to be arduous because of the slim Democratic majority in the Senate that forced his party to pursue a legislative strategy that required only 50 votes.

According to Senate rules, bills passed under the “budget reconciliation” process are strictly limited to taxes and spending, meaning that any climate-related provisions had to be carefully tailored. so it was dollars and cents.

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As Biden headed to Europe, first to the G-20 summit in Rome and then to Glasgow, Democrats appeared to have largely united around the $ 1.75 trillion social spending plan, which includes climate measures. However, no vote has been taken and it is not entirely clear whether the plan has the strong support of some essential senators.

The most radical measure the White House wanted to include in the bill is the Clean Electricity Performance Program, a $ 150 billion plan to pay power companies rapidly switching from fossil fuels to clean sources like wind, solar and nuclear, and to impose fines on those who do not.

But opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, forced Democrats to suppress it, the most painful of the climate-related cuts the White House has been forced to make.

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What Biden did get, in what appears to be a near-final deal, is money to incentivize cleaner energy, in large quantities.

The framework includes $ 555 billion in climate spending - a historic sum - including $ 300 billion in tax incentives for wind, solar and nuclear power, and credits of up to $ 12,500 for buyers of electric vehicles.

The White House has also cited an analysis by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, showing that the

if everything else goes according to plan, including individual states taking action. aggressive and federal courts allow new federal regulations.

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"The climate crisis is a problem of epic proportions, so this was never going to be a one-time thing, this bill passes and we have resolved the climate crisis," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, Senior Vice President of the League of Voters for Conservation.

"This bill is truly transformative, arguably the biggest we have done in climate and environmental justice by far, and it couldn't come too early."

Alok Sharma, chairman of the COP26 summit and British cabinet minister, played down global skepticism about the credibility of the United States, saying that Biden's promises to cut emissions have been ambitious.

"Symbolically, I think it was very important that one of the first executive orders that President Biden signed was, in fact, to re-enter the Paris agreement," Sharma said.

"I think there is a real commitment on the part of the United States to ensure that we comply," he settled.