Joe Biden at the April 22, 2021 Virtual Climate Summit at the White House. – Evan Vucci / AP / SIPA
Angela Merkel, Antonio Guterres, Emmanuel Macron or Boris Johnson… Almost the whole world hailed America’s “return” or a “turning point” on Thursday, while Joe Biden raised American carbon emissions targets on the occasion of a virtual climate summit organized by Washington. It remains to be seen whether Congress will follow the US president, who is relying heavily on his big infrastructure bill for his green shift.
Boasting the “extraordinary” economic benefits that can result from ecological reforms, the 46th President of the United States has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s largest economy from 50% to 52% by 2030 compared to to 2005. This objective almost doubles Washington’s former commitment of a decrease from 26% to 28% by 2025. It should enable the US economy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
No room for maneuver in the Senate
Joe Biden, however, at this stage remained elusive on the concrete means of achieving this. Its gigantic infrastructure plan, worth more than 2,000 billion dollars, includes an important component of ecological transition. But he could meet real resistance in Congress.
Democrats have only 50 votes out of 100 in the Senate, with Kamala Harris to tip the scales in the event of a tie. But to avoid parliamentary obstruction, in theory 60 votes are needed. The Republicans, them, unveiled their own plan, which costs … four times less. A compromise seems impossible to achieve.
Democrats could, in theory, bypass the budget reconciliation process, which allows a simple majority vote once a year when a bill impacts the budget. They’ve used that wild card for the stimulus package before, but a recent move could see them do it again. Except that centrist Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has to deal with a very conservative electorate in industrial and rural West Virginia, has said he is opposed to the corporate tax cutoff being proposed as a way to fund a gigantic plan. expenses.
A crucial summit in Glasgow in November
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “determined to work with the international community, and in particular the United States” on this front, despite very sharp tensions between the two great rival powers over a number of other files. He reaffirmed China’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060.
The major invited powers, which together represent 80% of global emissions, have put themselves in working order for this summit, a step towards the major UN conference, COP26, scheduled for the end of the year in Glasgow, in Scotland.
For UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, this summit marks “a turning point”. The environmental organization WWF hailed a summit and announcements that bring “new life” to the fight against global warming. “The next six months will be crucial,” warned John Kerry, however, referring to the Scottish deadline of November. “I think Glasgow is our last hope for the world to come together and move in the same direction.”