Plan to be unveiled a day after President calls for ‘decade of action,’ issues apology for Trump exit from Paris accord
The Biden administration plans to release a comprehensive methane reduction plan as part of the president’s participation in the United Nations climate summit, administration officials said Monday.
In addition to a comprehensive White House plan, several executive agencies will take action on methane, administration officials told reporters on a background call Monday.
The officials said the moves would protect the climate, create jobs, improve health and demonstrate U.S. leadership on climate at the critical global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, this week.
President Joe Biden also plans to announce a new U.S. initiative to conserve global forests while meeting Tuesday with world leaders at the U.N. conference, the officials said. Biden is scheduled to return to Washington Tuesday evening.
A third initiative is meant to spark private sector demand for clean energy. An official said the administration has won commitments from major corporations, including Apple, to buy certain amounts of clean energy.
Officials briefed reporters on the plans Monday on the condition that speakers were not named.
President Joe Biden arrives for the COP26 UN Climate Summit on November 1, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. (Photo by Adrian Dennis – Pool/Getty Images)
Potent methane
Biden’s agenda at the U.N. meeting has focused in part on methane, a greenhouse gas that comes from the oil and gas industry, landfills and agriculture.
“Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases,” an official on the call said. “This is the single best strategy to defeat the climate crisis that we have in the near term.”
By Monday evening in Glasgow, about 90 countries had signed onto a commitment to collectively reduce methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade, the official said.
To show the U.S. interest in the issue, the administration would launch a government-wide initiative to increase methane reduction commitments.
As part of the U.S. methane plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would reinstate a methane storage and leakage rule.
The EPA rule goes further than a similar one established under President Barack Obama and later repealed by his successor, President Donald Trump, an administration official said.
In addition, the Interior Department will write a rule to address the same issue on public lands. That rule would cover methane venting, the release of gas into the atmosphere, an official said.
And the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, an agency within the Department of Transportation, would put rules in place to require stronger monitoring by pipeline companies and better leak detection.
The Agriculture Department would also continue a “climate-smart” initiative to help farmers and ranchers operate in more climate-friendly ways, an official said.
Forest conservation
Biden’s participation in Tuesday’s session of the conference will focus on a decade-long forest conservation initiative and private sector innovation, officials said.
The government-wide forest program would be a “first-of-its-kind” effort to conserve global forests and other ecosystems that naturally capture carbon, an official said.
The plan is built around four key components, the official said:
- Incentivize forest conservation and forest landscape restoration;
- Catalyze private sector investment for conservation;
- Build data systems to enhance accountability;
- Dedicate up to $9 billion of international climate funding for forest conservation.
Biden will also announce a “First Movers Coalition,” a group of private companies to make “demand commitments” for energy derived from clean fuel sources.
The coalition has 25 founding members, including “some of the largest companies in the world” that will each make commitments to purchase a certain amount of non-fossil-fuel energy.
Calling for a ‘decade of action’ and apologizing for exit from Paris Accord
In a Monday address to the full conference, Biden urged the international community to transition to clean energy, curb greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, and help developing nations adapt to a changing climate.
In the speech, Biden said worsening wildfires and once-in-a-century storms hitting every few years show that there’s only “a brief window” to take action to save the world from the worst effects of a changing climate.
At a round table with other world leaders following his speech, Biden also apologized for his predecessor, President Donald Trump, exiting the Paris Climate Accord, an international commitment to reducing emissions that the U.S. entered under President Barack Obama in 2016.
Every country, especially developed countries, must be committed to shared climate goals, Biden said.
“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States in the last administration pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us behind the eight-ball a little bit,” he said.
The U.N. conference should be the beginning of a “decade of action,” he said.
The United States and other developed countries have a greater responsibility to address the global issues, Biden said. The White House announced a plan Monday to boost foreign aid spending to help developing countries manage climate impacts. The program would reach $3 billion by 2024.
“Those of us who are responsible for much of the deforestation and all the problems we have so far have an overwhelming obligation to the nations who in fact were not there, have not done it,” Biden said. “And we have to help, much more than we have so far.”
Biden committed to a “marathon” effort toward reaching net-zero U.S. emissions by 2050, as well as a “short-term sprint” to 2030 goals to keep global temperatures in check.
The White House released a long-term strategy Monday to reach net-zero emissions by that mid-century point. The plan depends on switching to non-carbon energy sources, cutting methane emissions and boosting removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Biden promised to announce new initiatives in the coming days related to specific industries, including agriculture and oil and gas, and combating deforestation.
He also touted his $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” spending plan that Congress may consider this week, depending on the outcome of negotiations among Democrats. It would provide $550 billion for climate initiatives, which aides say would be historic.
Biden said the legislation was “the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis that any advanced nation has made.” The plan would lead the U.S. to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1 gigaton by 2030.
The plan provides tax credits for a variety of clean energy industries. Biden said that approach would also create many jobs.
Biden framed the goals as a return to the international climate community. Prior U.S. policy had fallen short of what was needed and his administration was “working overtime” to show the country is committed to “action, not words.”
GOP objections
But the spending framework for his plan, which includes major pieces of his climate agenda, has yet to pass Congress, even after months of negotiations.
On Monday, Senate Republicans launched a renewed criticism of the Civilian Climate Corps, an $8 billion program intended to train young people for conservation careers that will help mitigate climate challenges.
In floor remarks last week circulated by his office Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.), called the program “pure socialist wish-fulfillment.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin III, (D-W.Va.), brought renewed doubt to the fate of Biden’s climate agenda in Congress during a Monday news conference in which he said he wavered in his support for the current version of Biden’s spending plan, which includes $555 billion in climate initiatives.
“Throughout the last three months, I have been straightforward about my concerns that I will not support a reconciliation package that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our nearly $29 trillion in national debt that no one else seems to care about,” Manchin said in a statement. “Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation. Simply put, I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact it will have on our national debt, our economy and the American people.”
Democrats need all their members to support the $1.75 trillion spending plan for it to pass the evenly divided Senate.
Officials on the call said the president was still working to win support on Capitol Hill.
Jacob Fischler reports on Washington for the States Newsroom network.
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