Watch Live: Biden Unveils Plan To Slash US Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 50% During Global Climate Summit

President Biden is reportedly aiming to reduce the US greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% (compared with 2005 levels) by the year 2030, according to a flurry of leaked reports in the NYT and other media outlets Thursday morning.

These new measures will force Americans to transform the way they drive, heath their homes and manufacture goods as Biden drags America toward the distant goal of carbon neutrality.

The reports hit just hours before the start of President Biden’s virtual climate summit, where he will be joined by a host of world leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and President Xi Jinping, of China. The virtual two-day summit is slated to begin Thursday at 0800ET. Biden planned the summit around Earth Day to help proclaim the US’s “return to a position of global leadership on the issue” of climate change, according to the NYT.

Readers can watch live below:

 

In total, some 40 heads of state are expected to participate in the summit, along with Pope Francis, Bill Gates, a range of Biden Cabinet members and former Secretary of State John Kerry, Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate.

Biden’s new greenhouse gas reduction target is “is a significant step up from the Obama administration’s pledge of a 25 percent to 28 percent reduction by 2025 and it is meant to signal that Mr. Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change is just the start of an aggressive effort that will include trying to press other nations forward.” Biden is expected to declare that “the United States is back, ready to reinstate climate rules and accelerate a shift of the world’s largest economy away from fossil fuels.”

“The United States is not waiting, the costs of delay are too great, and our nation is resolved to act now,” according to a statement from the White House.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday night, one senior administration official said the new target would give the United States significant leverage for pushing other countries to do more and hinted at new target announcements on Thursday from Canada, Japan, Argentina and Korea — though not from China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.

While Democrats cheered the president on, Republicans slammed Biden for attempting to use his unilateral authority to impose pieces of the controversial Green New Deal first introduced by AOC and Sen. Markey of Massachusetts

“The American people don’t need arbitrary pledges or Democrats’ command-and-control approach that could cripple our economy without addressing the true problem that is global emissions,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, said in a statement.

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said that the president was “unilaterally committing America to a drastic and damaging emissions pledge” that would punish the U.S. economy while “America’s adversaries like China and Russia continue to increase emissions at will.”

Back on the home front, addressing the climate crisis is an expensive pillar of the president’s infrastructure package. Green initiatives face skepticism from Republicans as well as some Democrats

During an interview Thursday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, Sen. Pat Toomey slammed Biden for trying to move climate-change-related policies under the umbrella of “infrastructure” spending.

“That is not what we understand infrastructure to be. We’ve invested heavily in the federal highway system but the federal government didn’t pay for gas stations,” says @SenToomey on the Biden infrastructure plan. pic.twitter.com/Hb7Or2lKmm

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 22, 2021

As for how Biden’s summit might impact markets, Bloomberg warned that shares of electric-vehicle stocks, alternative energy stocks and traditional oil & gas companies will likely come into focus.

The summit “is aimed at establishing/reestablishing the United States’ international leadership on the environment,” Height Securities LLC analysts Benjamin Salisbury and Josh Price said in a note. JPMorgan told clients that the event could be a catalyst for solar companies like Plug Power, Bloom Energy, Sunnova, Sunrun and Array Technologies, and recommended that investors buy these stocks on the recent weakness in these shares. On the other hand, the unveiling of new emissions standards could hammer traditional auto stocks like Ford and GM, while oil giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum will also be closely watched.

Biden has strong executive authority to change fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and greenhouse-gas regulations for power plants, they added. The WilderHill Clean Energy Index has fallen about 15% over the past month. A rotation to value from growth has hurt the group, along with sentiment cooling after a 200% runup in the index last year, which propelled fears of a bubble.

Height thinks methane emissions could be in focus, which could impact LNG shares including those of the US’s largest LNG exporter, Cheniere Energy said Tuesday it’s in favor of policies that help to limit methane emissions.

In summary, the event will begin Thursday with remarks from VP Kamala Harris. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and World Bank chief David Malpass are expected to join a session Thursday about how to finance climate change solutions.