China, US unveil separate big steps to fight climate change

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, JOE BIDEN. V.P. HARS:RI --V.P. HARRIS - PRESIDENT BIDEN: FOLKS, THANK YOU FOR THOSE COMMENTS. AND TO ALL OF YOU HERE IN THIS COOL ANGER. EARLRIE TAYOD WE WERE BRIEFED BY THE NATIONAL INTERAGENCY FIRE CENTER IN BOISE, IDA.HO IT IS A LOCATIONAL HELP RFO OUR FIREFIGHTING RESOURCES IN THE SEASON -- REGTEN. RESURVEYED SOME OF THE DAMAGE. IN LESS THEN A MONTH, IT HAS WIDPEUT O 200,000 ACRES AND 100,000 STRUCTUR.ES HOMES, PRECIOUS MEMORIES DESTROYED, AIR QUALITY IS DEGRADED, LOCAL ECONOMY STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS AND NEARLY 200 PEOPLE IN THE EAAR FORCED TO LIVE IN SHELTERS. EVERYONE IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA KNOWS THE TIME OF THE YEAR WHEN YOU CAN’GOT OUTSIDE, WNHE THE AIR WILL BE FILLED WITHKE S IN THE SKY WILL TURINN APOCALYPTIC SHADE OF ORANGE. BURNS WORRIED ABOUT KEEPING THEIR CHILDREN SAFE IN A PANDEMIC WORRY ABOUT AIR QUALITY AS WELL. THUS FAR, ETH NATIONWIDE OVER 44,000 WILDFES HAVE BURNED EVERY 5,300,000 ACRES. ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. IN CALIFORNIA, THIS YEAR -- MORE THAN TWO POINT -- TO MAKE SURE CALIFORNIA HAS EVERY RESOURCE AVAILABLE TO KEEP FAMILIES SAFE. THE GOVERNOR HAS LED THIS STATE WITH POISE AND STRONG LEADERSHIP. HE HAS BEEN AN INNOVATORN I ITEM FOR LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS AND HE AND I ARE BOTH OPTIMISTIC. THESE FIRES ARE BLINKING CODE RED FOR OUR NATION. THEY ARE GAINING FREQUENCY AND FEROCITY, AND WE KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO DO .IT STARTS WITH OUR FIREFIGHTERS PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE AND RUGGED AND DANGEROUS CONDITIONS. I NEVER FORGET COMING OUT TO ARIZONA TO SPEAK AT ETH MEMORIAL OF THE 19 GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS WHO GAVE THREI LIVES. FIREFIGHTERS ARE UNMATCHED IN THEIR BRAVERY. THAT’S WHY IT TOOK THE ACTION I DID IN JUNE TO ENSURE ALL FEDERAL FIREFIGHTERS EARN AT LEAST A NIMIMUM WAGE AND WORKING ON CHANGING BENEFITS AVAILABLE TO THEM. FEMA HAS APPROVED 33 FIRE MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT GRANTTOS HELP STATES PAY FOR ETH CTOS OF FIGHTING THESE AWFUL FIRES. WE USE THE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT TO DIG -- TO ADDRESS THE SHORTAGE OF FIRE HOSES. BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC WE FOUND OURSELS IN AVE SITUATION WREHE THERE’S A BACKLOG ON A LOT OF THINGS. WE RESTARTED THE PRODUCTION LINE IN OKLAHOMA, BRINGING IT BACK TO WO RKND A DELIVERING THOUSANDS OF FEET OF NEW FIRE HOSES FOR THE FRONTLINE. HARD TO BELIEVE WE ARE SHORT ON FIRE HOSES. IN ADDITION, WE HAVE TAPPED THE HARTMAN -- THE DEPTMARENT OF DEFENSE FOR 10 AIRCRAFT. 20 C-130S, MODULAR AIRRTPO FIREFIGHTING SYSTEMS. AND TO HELP FIRE SUPPRESSNIO, THE RC 26 AIRCRAFT TO PROVIDE CRITICAL IMAGERY FROM SPACE. THEY ARE BASED IN CALIFORNIA AND THEY HAVE NOW FLOWN OVER 1000 MISSIONS ACROSS THE STATES. 250 ACTIVE MILARIT TROOPS ON THE GROUND AT THE DIXIE FIRE IN CALIFOIARN WORKING ALONGSIDE FIREFIGHTERS. WE ARE SHARING SATELLITE IMAGERY TO DETECT AND MONITOR FIRE GROWTH. THE E IS USING TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER INFORMATION DIRECTLY TO PEOPLE CELL PHONES. OUR FRIENDS FROM CANADA AND AUSTRALIA ARE PROVIDING TO HELP BOTH FIREFIGHTERS AS WELL AS AIRCRAFT. MIGHT BUILD BACK BETTER PLAN INCLUDES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR LDFIREWI PREPAREDNESS, RESILIENCE AND RESPONSE. FOREST MANAGEMENT TO RESTORE MILLIONS OF ACRES, AND TO PROTTEC HOMES ANDUB PLIC WATER SOURCES. THIS BIPARSATI BILL INCLUDES MORE THA$8N BILLION OF INCREASED RESILIENCE AND WILDFIRES. AND ADD TO THAT,OU CNTY AND RESOLUTION PACKAGES INCLUDE $14 BILLION IN DISASTR NEEDS, INCLUDING 9 MILLION FOR COMMUNITIES HIT BY WILDFIRE AND DROUGHT. WE ARE NOT GOING TO LEAD THESE PEOPLE IN DISTRESS. WE KNOW THAT DECADES OF FOREST MANAGENTME DECISNSIO HAVE CREATED HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS ACROSS THE WESTERN FOREST. WE CAN’T IGNORE THE REALITY THAT THEES WILDFIRES ARE BEING SUPERCHARGED BY CLIMATE CHANGE. IT ISN’T ABOUT RED OR BLUE STATES, IT’S ABOUT FIRES, JUST FIRES. IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS I’VE BEEN TO LOUISIANA WHERE HURRICANE IDA HIT, AND WITH WINDS UP TO 179 MILES PER URHO GUSTING. NEW JERSEY AND NEW YK WALKING DOWN THE STREETS, MEETING WITH FAMILIES AND FIRST RESPONDERS. SEEING THE DESTRUCTION OF THESE DISASTERS BECAUSE, DREAMS CRUSHED, LIVES INTERRUPTED. SCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN WARNING US FOR YEARS THAT EXTREME WEATHER IS GOING TO GET REMO EXTREME. WE ARE LIVING IT IN REAL TIME. EXTREME WEATHER COST AMERICA LASTEA Y 99 BILLION DOLLARS. LET ME SAY IT AGAI N.EXTREME WEATHER IN THE UNITED STATES COST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A TOTAL OF $99 BILLION. IN THIS YEAR, THEY WERE GOING TO BREAK THE RECORD. IT’S A DEVASTATING LOSS TO THE ECONOMY AND FOR SO MANY COMMUNITIES. WHEN WE FAIL TO CURB POLLUTION FROM SMOKESTACKS AND TAILPIPES AND CONTINUE TO USE FOSSIL FUELS AS WE DO, WE INCREEAS RISKS SO FIREFIGHTERS. THESE DOLLARS WE INVEST IN RESILIENCE SAVESP U TO SIX DOLLARS DOWNHE T ROAD WHEN THE NEXT FIRE DOESN’T SPREAD AS WIDELY AND THOSE INVESTMENTS ALSO SAVE LIVES. BUT I THINK ABOUT CLITEMA CHANGE I THINK ABOUT NOT THE CAUSE, I THINK AUTBO GOOD PANGYI JOBS. I ALSO THINK ABOUTHE T JOBWES ARE LOSING DUE TO IMPACTS IN THE SUPPLY CHAINS AND INDUSTRIES. BECAEUS WE HAVE NOT ACTED BOLDLY ENOUGH. WE HEAV TO BUILD BACK. YOU HRDEA ME SAY IT A HUNDRED TIMES. NOT JUST BUILD BA, CKBUT BUILD BACK AT HER. AS ONE NATION WE HAVE TO DO I TOGETHER. WE WILL GET THROUGH IT TOGETHER, WE JUST HAVE TO KEEP THE FAITH .FOLKS, WE HAVE THE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL THAT IS BIPAISRTAN AND I BELIEVE WILL TGE DEON THE SO-CALLED RECONCILIATION BLIL THAT HAS ANOTHER SEVERAL TRILLION DOLLARS IN IT. AND STILL TALK ABOUT THE COST OF THE BUILD BACK BETTER PROPOSAL BEYOND THE INFRASTRUCTURE. TLE ME REMIND YOU, THE COST MAY BE AS MUCH AS $3.5 TLLION.RI TO PUT THAT IN PERSPECTIVE, IT SPENT OUT OVER 10 YEARS, NUMBER ONE. NUMBER TWO, IT’S EXPECTED OUR ECONOMY WILL GWRO TO 360 $6 TRILLION GDP BY THAT TIME. THAT’S LESS THAN 1.5%, TOTAL IN TERMS OF DEFICIT OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT. IN ADDITION TTTO, 90% OF ITS PAID FOR. SO, FOLKSWE, HAVE TO THINK BIG. THINKING SMALL IS A PRESCRIPTION FOR DISASTER. WE ARE GOING TOET G THIS DONE. DISH NATIONS IGOING TO COME TOGETHER AND WE ARE G

Related video above: President Biden talks about fires and climate change after surveying Caldor Fire damageThe two biggest economies and largest carbon polluters in the world announced separate financial attacks on climate change Tuesday.Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will no longer fund coal-fired power plants abroad, surprising the world on climate for the second straight year at the U.N. General Assembly. That came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan to double financial aid to poorer nations to $11.4 billion by 2024 so those countries could switch to cleaner energy and cope with global warming's worsening impacts. That puts rich nations close to within reach of its long-promised but not realized goal of $100 billion a year in climate help for developing nations."This is an absolutely seminal moment," said Xinyue Ma, an expert on energy development finance at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. This could provide some momentum going into major climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in less than six weeks, experts said. Running up to the historic 2015 Paris climate deal, a joint U.S.-China agreement kickstarted successful negotiations. This time, with China-U.S. relations dicey, the two nations made their announcements separately, hours and thousands of miles apart."Today was a really good day for the world," United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the upcoming climate negotiations, told Vice President Kamala Harris.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has made a frenetic push this week for bigger efforts to curb climate change called the two announcements welcome news, but said "we still have a long way to go" to make the Glasgow meeting successful.Depending on when China's new coal policy goes into effect, it could shutter 47 planned power plants in 20 developing countries that use the fuel that emits the most heat-trapping gases, about the same amount of coal power as from Germany, according to the European climate think-tank E3G."It's a big deal. China was the only significant funder of overseas coal left. This announcement essentially ends all public support for coal globally," said Joanna Lewis, an expert on China, energy and climate at Georgetown University. "This is the announcement many have been waiting for."From 2013 to 2019, data showed that China was financing 13% of coal-fired power capacity built outside China – "far and away the largest public financier," said Kevin Gallagher, who directs the Boston University center. Japan and South Korea announced earlier this year that they were getting out of the coal-financing business.With all three countries pulling out of financing coal abroad "that sends a signal to the global economy. This is a sector that's fast becoming a stranded asset," Gallagher said.While this is a big step it is not quite a death knell for coal, said Byford Tsang, a policy analyst for E3G. That's because China last year added as much new coal power domestically as was just potentially canceled abroad, he said.Tsang cautioned that the one-sentence line in Xi's speech that mentioned this new policy lacked details like effective dates and whether it applied to private funding as well as public funding.What also matters is when China stops building new coal plants at home and shutters old ones, Tsang said. That will be part of a push in the G-20 meetings in Italy next month, he said. "The Chinese are going to respond to international pressure, rather than just American bilateral pressure right now," said Deborah Seligsohn, an expert on China's politics and energy at Villanova University."A coal-free energy mix is still decades in the future" because coal power plants typically operate for 50 years or more, said Stanford University environment director Chris Field.Many nations that are trying to build their economies — including top polluters China and India — have long argued they needed to industrialize with fossil fuels, like developed nations had already done. Starting in 2009 and then with "a grand bargain" in 2015 in Paris, richer nations promised $100 billion a year in financial help to poorer nations to make the switch from dirty to clean fuel, World Resources Institute climate finance expert Joe Thwaites said. But as of 2019, the richer nations were only providing $80 billion a year, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.So when rich nations like the United States asked poorer ones to do more "it gives any other country a very easy retort," Thwaites said: "'You took out commitments and you haven't delivered on those either.'"In April, Biden announced he would double the Obama-era financial aid pledge of $2.85 billion a year to $5.7 billion. On Tuesday, he announced that he hopes to double that to $11.4 billion a year starting in 2024, but he does need passage from Congress.The European Union has been doling out $24.5 billion a year with the European Commission recently upping that to more than $4.7 billion over seven years. "The Europeans are doing a lot more and the Americans are lagging behind," Thwaites said. He said several studies calculate that based on the U.S. economy, population and carbon pollution, it should be contributing 40% to 47% of the $100 billion fund to be doing its fair share. But Congressional Republicans aren't convinced. "We shouldn't be contributing to a fund that picks winners and losers and further subsidizes China in the process," said Rep. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the House Climate Committee. The time for global grandstanding is over said Princeton University climate science and international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer said. "It's what's happening on the ground that matters.""Accelerating the global phase out of coal is the single most important step" to keeping the Paris agreement's key warming limit within reach, said U.N. chief Guterres.

Related video above: President Biden talks about fires and climate change after surveying Caldor Fire damage

The two biggest economies and largest carbon polluters in the world announced separate financial attacks on climate change Tuesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will no longer fund coal-fired power plants abroad, surprising the world on climate for the second straight year at the U.N. General Assembly. That came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan to double financial aid to poorer nations to $11.4 billion by 2024 so those countries could switch to cleaner energy and cope with global warming's worsening impacts. That puts rich nations close to within reach of its long-promised but not realized goal of $100 billion a year in climate help for developing nations.

"This is an absolutely seminal moment," said Xinyue Ma, an expert on energy development finance at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center.

This could provide some momentum going into major climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in less than six weeks, experts said. Running up to the historic 2015 Paris climate deal, a joint U.S.-China agreement kickstarted successful negotiations. This time, with China-U.S. relations dicey, the two nations made their announcements separately, hours and thousands of miles apart.

"Today was a really good day for the world," United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the upcoming climate negotiations, told Vice President Kamala Harris.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has made a frenetic push this week for bigger efforts to curb climate change called the two announcements welcome news, but said "we still have a long way to go" to make the Glasgow meeting successful.

Depending on when China's new coal policy goes into effect, it could shutter 47 planned power plants in 20 developing countries that use the fuel that emits the most heat-trapping gases, about the same amount of coal power as from Germany, according to the European climate think-tank E3G.

"It's a big deal. China was the only significant funder of overseas coal left. This announcement essentially ends all public support for coal globally," said Joanna Lewis, an expert on China, energy and climate at Georgetown University. "This is the announcement many have been waiting for."

From 2013 to 2019, data showed that China was financing 13% of coal-fired power capacity built outside China – "far and away the largest public financier," said Kevin Gallagher, who directs the Boston University center. Japan and South Korea announced earlier this year that they were getting out of the coal-financing business.

With all three countries pulling out of financing coal abroad "that sends a signal to the global economy. This is a sector that's fast becoming a stranded asset," Gallagher said.

While this is a big step it is not quite a death knell for coal, said Byford Tsang, a policy analyst for E3G. That's because China last year added as much new coal power domestically as was just potentially canceled abroad, he said.

Tsang cautioned that the one-sentence line in Xi's speech that mentioned this new policy lacked details like effective dates and whether it applied to private funding as well as public funding.

What also matters is when China stops building new coal plants at home and shutters old ones, Tsang said. That will be part of a push in the G-20 meetings in Italy next month, he said. "The Chinese are going to respond to international pressure, rather than just American bilateral pressure right now," said Deborah Seligsohn, an expert on China's politics and energy at Villanova University.

"A coal-free energy mix is still decades in the future" because coal power plants typically operate for 50 years or more, said Stanford University environment director Chris Field.

Many nations that are trying to build their economies — including top polluters China and India — have long argued they needed to industrialize with fossil fuels, like developed nations had already done. Starting in 2009 and then with "a grand bargain" in 2015 in Paris, richer nations promised $100 billion a year in financial help to poorer nations to make the switch from dirty to clean fuel, World Resources Institute climate finance expert Joe Thwaites said.

But as of 2019, the richer nations were only providing $80 billion a year, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

So when rich nations like the United States asked poorer ones to do more "it gives any other country a very easy retort," Thwaites said: "'You took out commitments and you haven't delivered on those either.'"

In April, Biden announced he would double the Obama-era financial aid pledge of $2.85 billion a year to $5.7 billion. On Tuesday, he announced that he hopes to double that to $11.4 billion a year starting in 2024, but he does need passage from Congress.

The European Union has been doling out $24.5 billion a year with the European Commission recently upping that to more than $4.7 billion over seven years. "The Europeans are doing a lot more and the Americans are lagging behind," Thwaites said.

He said several studies calculate that based on the U.S. economy, population and carbon pollution, it should be contributing 40% to 47% of the $100 billion fund to be doing its fair share.

But Congressional Republicans aren't convinced. "We shouldn't be contributing to a fund that picks winners and losers and further subsidizes China in the process," said Rep. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the House Climate Committee.

The time for global grandstanding is over said Princeton University climate science and international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer said. "It's what's happening on the ground that matters."

"Accelerating the global phase out of coal is the single most important step" to keeping the Paris agreement's key warming limit within reach, said U.N. chief Guterres.

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