US President Joe Biden will pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030, The Washington Post reported citing two people familiar with the matter.
The move comes as Biden convenes a virtual summit of more than three dozen world leaders, aimed at ratcheting up international climate ambitions and re-establishing the United States as a leader in the effort to slow the planet's warming.
The planned US pledge represents a near-doubling of the target that the nation committed to under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, when former president Barack Obama vowed to cut emissions by 26 to 28 per cent compared with 2005 levels, The Washington Post reported. However, a White House official said a final decision had not been made.
"The Biden-Harris administration will do more than any in history to meet our climate crisis," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech on Monday. "This is already an all-hands-on-deck effort across our government and across our nation. Our future depends on the choices we make today."
According to The Washington Post, some nations, including those that are part of the European Union, already have locked in more aggressive emissions-cutting targets.
The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced a commitment to reducing its emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, compared to 1990 levels -- a goal that the government said would take the nation more than three-quarters of the way toward reaching net zero by 2050.
( With inputs from ANI )
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