US Special Presidential Envoy for climate John Kerry to travel to India, Bangladesh and UAE

Washington: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to Abu Dhabi, New Delhi and Dhaka from 1 to 9 April to discuss the climate crisis, the State Department has announced. Kerry would travel for consultations on increasing climate ambition ahead of US President Joe Biden’s Leaders’ Summit on Climate from 22-23 April and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later this year, the State Department said on Wednesday. “Looking forward to meaningful discussions with friends in the Emirates, India, and Bangladesh on how to tackle the climate crisis,” Kerry tweeted. Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the two-day virtual climate summit to underscore the urgency and the economic benefits of stronger climate action, according to the White House. “It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow,” it had said last week. Besides Modi, 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. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering are the other two leaders from South Asia to be invited for the two-day mega-conference on climate change. The White House said a key objective of both the Leaders’ Summit and the COP26 would be to catalyse efforts to keep limiting the warming 1.5 degrees Celsius’ 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, it added. By the time of the summit, the US will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new nationally-determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, the White House said. 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, it said. The summit will reconvene the US-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 per cent of global emissions and global GDP. Key themes of the summit will include galvanising efforts by the world’s major economies to reduce emissions during this critical decade to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach and mobilising public and private sector finance to drive the net-zero transition and to help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts, it said.