Earth Day 2021: Joe Biden to host Earth Day climate Summit;..

Earth Day 2021: Joe Biden to host Earth Day climate Summit; how to watch it online, who is attending

Biden invited 40 national leaders and some of the main polluters India, China, UK, and Russia have accepted their invitations.
Firstpost •Apr 22, 2021 08:00 IST


By tech2 News Staff

Editor's Note: This is an ongoing story and details will be added as and when it is made available.

On Earth Day, 22 April, the US President Joe Biden has decided to host a meeting with the world's leaders titled the 'Leaders Summit on Climate'. It is a two-day conference and has been in the works since he took office on 20 January. Many say that this summit is a precursor to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) that will take place later this year in Glasglow. This is supposed to "galvanise efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis" and "underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action."

President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington. Image credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Watch it online

The Leaders Summit on Climate is a two-day event that will begin on 22 April and end on 23 April. It will be a virtual event owing to the pandemic making travel impossible. The event will be streamed online and available for the public to watch. The Days events will begin at 5.30 pm IST (8:00 a.m. EDT) and last till 11.00 pm IST (1.30 pm EDT). You can watch the live proceeding here.

Summit Objectives

Biden has urged the other leaders to use this summit as an opportunity to release their countries climate ambition and how they will take action to reduce emissions. The US is also expected to announce its ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.

The main objectives of this summit are:

- Get the world's major economies to reduce emission in this decade while also getting the public and private sector involvement.

- Show how climate action can have economic and social benefits. Build new businesses and industries.

- Using the technology available to adapt to climate change but also reduce emissions. Use nature-based solutions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

- Protect lives and livelihoods by finding ways to adapt to climate change.

The US also want to "reconvene the US-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate" that was started by former President Barack Obama in March 2009. It is a forum that gets together the 17 major economies that are responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions as well as global GDP. They are:

Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
the European Union
France
Germany
India
Indonesia
Italy
Japan
Korea
Mexico
Russia
South Africa
the United Kingdom
the United States

Who is attending?

The world's top five highest emitters are China, The United States, India, Russia and Japan. Biden has invited a total of 40 national leaders to attend this two-day virtual climate summit. Recently, India, China, UK, Canada and Russia have accepted the invitations and announced that they will attend this summit online. However, the final list of attendees who have accepted this invitation and will be attending the Summit is yet to be announced.

The list of invitees are:

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda
President Alberto Fernandez, Argentina
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Bhutan
President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada
President Sebastián Piñera, Chile
President Xi Jinping, People’s Republic of China
President Iván Duque Márquez, Colombia
President Félix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark
President Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission
President Charles Michel, European Council
President Emmanuel Macron, France
President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India
President Joko Widodo, Indonesia
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel
Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Jamaica
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan
President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya
President David Kabua, Republic of the Marshall Islands
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand
President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria
Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway
President Andrzej Duda, Poland
President Moon Jae-in, Republic of Korea
President Vladimir Putin, The Russian Federation
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore
President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United Kingdom
President Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnam

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