Table of content
President Joe Biden’s effort in renewing engagement on climate change has put the issue of climate change at the top of the Group of 20 agenda in an effort to reduce emissions to net-zero.
According to John Morton, a former private equity adviser, and Treasury’s first climate counselor, climate change will be a major topic during this weekend’s G20 summit in Rome. He also predicted a flurry of new promises from countries and the private sector ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate conference, which begins in Glasgow on Monday.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, he said, “That’s an indication of the seriousness with which the global community is now taking climate change… And obviously, this administration has come back guns blazing on the issue is really important ways.”
According to a draft statement seen by Reuters, leaders of the Group of 20 richest nations committed to stepping up their efforts in limiting global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The budget behind the renewal
Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending plan, which includes $555 billion in clean energy tax credits and other climate-related initiatives, is expected to be approved in the coming days, according to Morton, who coordinates climate-focused work across Treasury divisions.
Morton says, “It would be an absolutely historic investment into climate change, by far the biggest in American history, and it would supercharge the efforts around the transition.”
This investment is in addition to different measures included in a separate $1 trillion infrastructure plan, but several of the administration’s original recommendations were rejected during congressional discussions.
Biden’s plan includes a bevy of clean energy tax credits, investments to assist the United States to adapt to the worst effects of climate change, and funds for incentives to encourage the development of new domestic supply chains and technology.
Cutting emissions and transitioning to a net-zero economy, according to Morton, is an “economic imperative” for maintaining U.S. competitiveness, especially given other countries’ enormous investments, such as China’s. Morton says, “shame on us if we don’t take advantage of those economic opportunities at home and create the jobs that we know will be the jobs of the next decades.”
According to Morton, Washington is also collaborating with international partners to invest in quickening efforts to move away from coal.
