• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, March 31, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

Biden Calls Clean Energy Matter of National Security in Face of Russia War

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
06/17/22
in Environment, National
Joe Biden climate summit

President Joe Biden at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate at the White House. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

President Joe Biden told a climate conference for major economies Friday that Russia’s war in Ukraine shows the shift to renewable energy is a matter of national security as well as key to preventing global warming.

“Russia’s brutal and unprovoked assault on its neighbor Ukraine has fueled a global energy crisis and sharpened the need to achieve longterm reliable energy security and security,” Biden told the virtual summit hosted from the White House. “The good news is that climate security and energy security go hand in hand.”

This was Biden’s third convening of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate since he took office in 2021 with a vow to make the United States a leader in the world’s attempt to halt catastrophic global warming.

But it comes just as Biden faces public anger over soaring fuel prices linked to fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, European countries are struggling to find ways to circumvent dependence on Russian oil and gas imports.

In his speech, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered a blistering attack on the oil and gas industry, accusing it of mirroring tobacco companies’ tactics to push a “false narrative to minimize their responsibility for climate change.”

“Nothing could be more clear or present than the danger of fossil fuel expansion. Even in the short-term, fossil fuels don’t make political or economic sense. Yet we seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat,” he said.

However, the UN chief’s message ran counter to the political realities facing Biden as he tries to persuade the domestic oil industry to amp up production and prepares for a visit to Saudi Arabia next month.

Americans are currently paying an average of $5 a gallon to fill their cars, up from $3 a year ago, and the hike is in turn fueling wider inflation, now at a 40-year high.

India, Russia absent

A senior Biden administration official said 23 countries were represented at the video conference, representing most of the world’s major economies and “focused around the mitigation that they will be taking” on climate impacts.

At a previous session in September 2021, Biden and the European Union announced a pledge to cut emissions of methane, a planet-warming gas. This was formally launched at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow and now has 115 countries signed on.

Friday’s gathering was the largest leader-level gathering before COP27, the follow-up summit, set to take place in Egypt this November.

But highlighting diplomatic complications besetting the search for international cooperation on the global climate threat, Russia did not attend Friday’s summit.

China was represented only at the level of its climate envoy, rather than President Xi Jinping, the White House said. And India was not on the official list of attendees, either.

Methane opportunity

Warning that the world must not let global climate change mitigation goals “slip out of our reach,” Biden said “the window for action is rapidly narrowing.”

Despite the scramble to adapt global energy markets to fallout from the Ukraine war, Biden insisted that longterm climate management, immediate economic goals and ending reliance on energy exporter Russia can all work together.

He cited the global pledge to end methane gas leaks and the practice of burning off, or flaring, unwanted gas at oil fields, calling on countries to “ramp up” their responses.

European economies are heavily reliant on Russian energy, but Biden said an end to methane waste alone could solve that problem.

“Each year our existing energy system leaks enough methane to meet the needs for the entire European power sector. We flare enough gas to offset nearly all of the EU’s gas imports from Russia,” he said.

“So by stopping the leaking and flaring of this super-potent greenhouse gas and capturing this resource for countries that need it we’re addressing two problems at once.”

Developing Countries Left ‘Disappointed’ at Climate Talks
ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

A flooded road in Batu Berendam in Malaysia's southern coastal state of Malacca
Environment

At Least Four Dead, Tens of Thousands Evacuated in Malaysia Floods

by Staff Writer
March 6, 2023
deforestation
Environment

Major Firms Not Doing Enough to Curb Deforestation: Report

by Staff Writer
February 15, 2023
People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Shell
Environment

Greenpeace Sues UK Government Over Shell Gas Field

by Staff Writer
July 27, 2022
Joe Biden
Environment

Biden Vows Climate Action as Heat Waves Slam US, Europe

by Staff Writer
July 20, 2022
Australia wildlife
Environment

‘Shocking’ Government Report Lists Devastation to Australia Wildlife

by Staff Writer
July 19, 2022
Next Post
Afghan refugees

Pakistani Migrants in Afghanistan Caught in Quake No-Man's Land

Spain migrants

Spain Prosecutor Opens Probe Into Melilla Migrant Deaths

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post