Biden asks world leaders to cut methane in climate fight
CTV
U.S. President Joe Biden urged world leaders to join the United States and European Union in a pledge to cut methane emissions, hoping to build momentum before an international summit on climate change begins next month.
Biden held a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), a follow-up to an Earth Day meeting he hosted in April to unveil new U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and press other countries to do more to curb theirs.
Tackling climate change is one of Biden's top domestic and international priorities, and the U.N. COP26 climate conference in Glasgow from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 is seen as a critical moment for the world to commit to doing more to halt rising temperatures.
The United Nations said on Thursday the pace of climate change had not been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the world was losing its battle to cut emissions enough to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Biden asked other nations Friday to join a pact agreed by the United States and the EU to aim to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030.
