COP26: Biden says administration 'working overtime' on climate strategy

Arriving at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow without decisive support from Congress, the Biden administration touted its ongoing steps as well as incremental new policies aimed at halving emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050.

"We're going to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by well over a gigaton by 2030," President Joe Biden told world leaders Nov. 1, asserting his administration is "working overtime to show that our climate commitment is action, not words."

On top of its prior executive and regulatory actions, the administration championed its Build Back Better framework agreement reached with congressional Democrats Oct. 28 as the "largest effort to combat climate change in American history." It also expressed confidence that its bipartisan Infrastructure deal can pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law.

Efforts to secure votes in the Congress ahead of the Glasgow talks had stalled in late October amid protracted negotiations among Democrats.

The White House, however, released a long-term strategy Nov. 1 to meet its 2050 goal, with a focus on actions this decade. And it noted plans to work with Congress to provide $3 billion annually in climate adaptation finance, intended to help those most vulnerable to climate change worldwide.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry outlined four goals for the Glasgow talks: raising global ambition significantly to be more on track to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming within reach; getting countries to commit to acting this decade; securing financing for adaptation; and completing the Paris rulebook for international emissions trading and transparency.

Over the next several days, Biden said the US will unveil an initiative to "demonstrate our commitment to providing innovative solutions across multiple sectors," including agriculture, oil and gas, and hard-to-abate industries, as well as combating deforestation.

Funding new technology

Among the incremental announcements, on Nov. 1 the US Department of Energy unveiled $127 million in funding aimed at cutting long-haul trucking emissions and increasing the efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

The money will go to five makers of heavy vehicles: Ford, General Motors, Daimler Trucks North America, PACCAR and Volvo Technology of America.

The companies promised to focus on a range of ideas, including building battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks and charging stations, and demonstrating how the advanced trucks measure up against conventional trucks on cost, payload, towing and refueling times.

It is the third round of the so-called Supertruck Initiative launched in 2009 to improve heavy-duty truck freight efficiency by 50%. The second iteration sought to double fuel efficiency for 18-wheeler trucks.

DOE also announced $71 million in funding available for expanding EV charging stations through projects such as installing charging stations in multi-unit housing or hosting community demonstrations to address barriers to EV adoption and lowering costs. The department also announced another $209 million in funding for 26 new laboratory projects to spur the development of EV batteries.

The kickoff of COP26 came as G20 leaders in Rome committed to end international public finance for new unabated coal-fired power generation abroad by the end of 2021. But they failed to commit to a phaseout deadline for their own coal-fired generation in an Oct. 31 declaration.

The G20 declaration also recognized the damage done by methane emissions, noting their reduction "can be one of the quickest, most feasible and most cost-effective ways to limit climate change and its impacts."

Still, some analysts saw the G20 statements as light on commitments.

"Although today's communiqué devoted a whopping nine paragraphs to energy and climate issues, conspicuously weak wording on coal and methane may reveal division more than unity," ClearView Energy Partners said in a note to clients. Strong wording on emissions reductions writ large gives way to a much less action-oriented promises to acknowledge and recognize methane, ClearView said.

Kerry, in a press briefing, defended advances in the communiqué.

"We've never had all these countries adopting 1.5 degrees," Kerry said. "These general statements and communiques are, frankly, they're important because everybody is on board."

Together with the EU, the US has launched a global methane pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030.

"More than 70 countries have already signed up to support rapid reduction of methane pollution, and I encourage every nation to sign on," Biden told the conference.

Long-term strategy

In its long-term strategy to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, the Biden administration reiterated that its 2050 target is achievable through a variety of pathways

Broadly, those pathways will all need to include decarbonizing the energy sector, removing more carbon dioxide by scaling up technologies to do so, reducing energy waste, methane and other non-CO2 emissions, and electrifying most of the economy, it said.

"Achieving net-zero emissions will require actions that go far beyond business as usual," the White House said. "If other major economies adopt similar ambition, we can keep 1.5°C within reach."

About 4.5 gigatons of the 6.5 gigatons of annual reductions from 2005 levels will likely come from changes in the energy system, such as transitioning to cleaner energy sources, according to the report. The Biden administration also estimates that declining costs of renewables, batteries and energy storage technologies could contribute to an emissions reduction of between 70% and 90% by 2030.

Additionally, the report emphasized the importance of carbon removal systems, both natural land sinks and technologies, such as direct air capture systems. All told, these sources are projected to remove between 1 billion and 1.8 billion mt of CO2 annually by 2050, according to the report.

Carbon removal systems can help to offset emissions from processes that are currently too difficult to mitigate as well. The US will need net-negative CO2 emissions to offset other GHGs, according to the report.

The US intends to release another report focused on how to achieve its 2030 climate target "soon."