New Delhi (NVI): US President Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to a virtual summit to address the climate crisis which will be hosted on April 22-23.
The Leaders’ Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency and the economic benefits of stronger climate action, the White House said in a statement.
It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow, it added.
Other leaders invited for the summit include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The White House further stated, “A key goal of both the Leaders Summit and COP26 will be to catalyze efforts that keep that 1.5-degree goal within reach.”
The Summit will also highlight examples of how enhanced climate ambition will create good paying jobs, advance innovative technologies, and help vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts.
In his invitation, Biden urged leaders to use the Summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.
The US has invited the leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which includes the 17 countries responsible for about 80 percent of global emissions and GDP, as well as heads of countries that are especially vulnerable to climate impacts or are demonstrating strong climate leadership.
Key themes of the summit will include mobilising public and private sector finance to drive the net-zero transition and to help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts.
The summit will also look into the economic benefits of climate action, with a strong emphasis on job creation, and the importance of ensuring all communities and workers benefit from the transition to a new clean energy economy and spurring transformational technologies that can help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change, while also creating enormous new economic opportunities and building the industries of the future.
Discussions will also be held on opportunities to strengthen capacity to protect lives and livelihoods from the impacts of climate change, address the global security challenges posed by climate change and the impact on readiness, and address the role of nature-based solutions in achieving net-zero by 2050 goals.
The virtual Leaders Summit will be live-streamed for public viewing.
-CHK
