President Biden’s Summit on Climate

May 15th, 2021

By Cemre Türkmen

President Biden took action on his first day in office to return the US to the Paris Agreement 1. On
January 27, he announced that he would hold a summit soon to step up the efforts of major economies
to combat the climate crisis. He invited 40 world leaders to the Leaders Summit on Climate, on March
26. On 22-23 April that summit was held.

Although Biden wants to tackle the climate crisis, unfortunately, it will not be enough for America
alone to do this, the whole world needs to take steps. A key goal of both the Leaders Summit and
COP262 will be to catalyze efforts that keep that 1.5-degree goal within reach. On the way to the
summit and with the new United States 2030 target with what was announced at the summit, more
than half of the world’s economy is now committed to the pace of action we need to limit warming to
1.5 degree C.

With this summit, Biden takes its first steps towards becoming a global president, aiming to mobilize
the rest of the world. He strives to increase incentives not only with the climate but with the economy
that will develop with the effect of climate.

The decisions taken in the summit include:

 Enhancing climate ambition and enabling the transformations required to reach net-zero
emissions by 2050.
 Launching a Global Climate Ambition Initiative.
 Setting ambitious benchmarks for climate investments at DFC3.
 Committing to climate investments at MCC4.
 Launching a Greening Government Initiative.
 Mobilizing financing to drive the net-zero transition and adapt to climate change .
 Scaling up international financing to address climate needs.
 Issuing the first U.S. International Climate Finance Plan.
 Launching an international dialogue on decreasing fiscal climate risk through national budgets.
 Transforming energy systems.
 Establishing a Net-Zero Producers Forum.
 Establishing a U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership.
 Supporting ambitious renewable energy goals and pathways in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
 Supporting clean energy mineral supply chains. 

1
To tackle climate change and its negative impacts, 197 countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the COP21 (United
Nations Climate Change Conference) in Paris on 12 December 2015. Entered into force less than a year later, the deal
aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the global temperature increase in this century
to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing means to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees.
2
United Nations Climate Change Conference in November 2021
3
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
4
The Millennium Challenge Corporation
  Revitalizing the transport sector.
 Sparking the zero-emission transportation revolution – at home and abroad.
 Joining the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Council.
 Reducing emissions from international shipping. 
 Reducing emissions from international aviation.
 Building workforces for the future and ensuring U.S. competitiveness .
 Launching a Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure. 
 Creating the EXIM5 Chairman’s Council on Climate. 
 Supporting workers and communities in the shift to a global clean energy future.
 Promoting innovation to bring clean technologies to scale.
 Clean energy innovation and manufacturing.
 Reinvigorating leadership and participation in Mission Innovation.
 Leading the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate.
 Joining the LeadIT6.
 Launching a G-PST7 Consortium.
 Launching the FIRST Program to support the use of small modular reactors. 
 Providing urgent support for vulnerable countries to adapt and build resilience to the climate
crisis. 
 Supporting environmental justice and climate resilience.
 Partnering with islands to lead on climate and energy resilience. 
 Reducing black carbon by investing in clean cookstoves.
 Mitigating black carbon health impacts in Indigenous Arctic communities.
 Implementing nature-based solutions.
 Investing in tropical forests to drive towards a net-zero world.
 Funding nature-based approaches to coastal community and ecosystem resilience
 Promoting resilience in the Southern Ocean.
 Promoting safety and security at home and abroad.
 Conducting climate exposure assessments on all U.S. installations. 
 Supporting assessments in partner countries around the world. 
 Supporting action at every level.
 Advancing subnational and non-state engagement abroad. 
 Catalyzing subnational action and participation in COP26.

On his first day in office, President Biden kept his promise to rejoin the Paris Agreement, and one
week later than his first day in office, he signed an Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at
Home and Abroad. In the light of this order, Biden has commissioned federal agencies to start
combating the climate crisis. The president committed that he will move forward with international
foundations, associations, businesses, and leaders in all initiatives that were announced from climate to
economy, and getting countries around the world to step up and meet this global challenge.

5
The U.S. Export-Import Bank
6
The Leadership Group for Industry
7
Global Power System Transformation