The United States will halve its GreenHouse Gas emissions by the end of the decade, White House officials reportedly told newsmen, saying that President Joe Biden made the commitment on Thursday at a virtual two-day summit on climate change.
The President “will proclaim America’s return to a position of global leadership on GhGs and urge other countries to equally make steep cuts.
“The new target aims to see U.S. emissions drop 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030,” the officials said.
A senior administration official was quoted as saying that the new target would give the U.S. significant leverage for pushing other countries to do more.
Environmental activists were also quoted saying some major business groups and many Democrats called the new target an ambitious but attainable goal necessary to keep global warming from reaching crisis levels.
“The administration’s emission reduction goals are technologically feasible and well within our reach,” a Democrat of Massachusetts, Senator Edward J. Markey, added.