U.S. President Joe Biden has invited his Chinese and Russian counterparts to a virtual summit on climate to be held on 22-23 April, a U.S. State Department official told French news agency AFP.
Xi Jingping and Vladimir Putin are among 40 world leaders invited to the meeting, which is set to mark Washington’s return to the frontline of the fight against climate change, after four years of disengagement during the Donald Trump presidency.
The new U.S. president had originally announced his intention to organise a climate summit on 22 April to coincide with Earth Day, ahead of a major United Nations meeting on climate, scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit will now be held on two days, but virtually, because of the novel Coronavirus pandemic.
On his first day in office, President Biden made good on a campaign promise by announcing his decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate, from which Trump had withdrawn the United States.
The return of the world’s largest economy and second largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions took effect on 19 February. As a result, almost all the world’s nations are parties to the 2015 agreement.
The Brussels Times
