Biden Urges World Leaders to Keep Promises on Climate Following Summit
Voice of America
U.S. President Joe Biden praised world leaders for coming together on climate change and urged them to make good on promises as he closed a virtual climate change summit hosted from the White House.
“The commitments we’ve made must become real,” Biden said Friday on the last day of the two-day summit that involved 40 world leaders. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline. Biden pledged during the summit to cut U.S. greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030. Japan and Canada also raised climate commitments during the summit while the European Union and Britain announced stronger climate targets earlier this week. John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, said that more than half the world’s economy has now pledged action to stop warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on Feb. 14, 2025.
FILE - A USAID flag flutters outside as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued freezing funding, in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025.
FILE - Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 13, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A view of a selection of the mummified bodies in the exhibition area of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (Emma Paolin via AP) Emma Paolin, a researcher at University of Ljubljana, background, and Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, lecturer at University College London, take swab samples for microbiological analysis at the Krakow University of Economics. (Abdelrazek Elnaggar via AP)
FILE - Myanmar's military commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, attends a military exercise at Ayeyarwady delta region in Myanmar, Feb. 3, 2018. FILE - Aung San Suu Kyi, then Myanmar's leader, delivers a speech in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Jan. 28, 2020.
FILE - Kurdish-led fighters backed by the U.S. escort suspected Islamic State militants in Hasakah, Syria, Jan. 26, 2022.
FILE - A picture taken on September 14, 2017 shows an Airbus A340 of Mahan Air at the tarmac at Dubai's International Airport. FILE - A plane of Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines (MEA), prepares to take off from Beirut International airport on Aug. 5, 2024.
FILE - Philippine Navy personnel watch the Canadian vessel HMCS Montreal during the Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity being held in the West Philippine Sea, Aug. 7, 2024.
Balochistan province, Pakistan
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te holds a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 14, 2025. FILE - The logo of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is shown during the Taiwan Innotech Expo at the World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 14, 2022.
Police officers stand next to a car outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis has gone to continue treatment for ongoing bronchitis in Rome, Feb. 14, 2025.
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip hold photos depicting their faces during a protest demanding their release from Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025.
FILE - The New Safe Confinement at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant which cover the No. 4 reactor unit, seen May 29, 2022.