Biden to pledge halving US emissions by 2030 at climate summit

US president is set to open global climate summit with the ambitious goal, with details of how it will be achieved.

President Joe Biden will open a global climate summit with a pledge to cut at least in half the climate-wrecking coal and petroleum fumes that the United States pumps out, a commitment he hopes will spur China and other big polluters to speed up efforts of their own. The commitment – to cut US fossil fuel emissions up to 52 percent in less than 10 years – will come at the launch of the virtual climate summit for 40 world leaders on Thursday. It will require by far the most ambitious climate effort ever undertaken by Washington, nearly doubling the reductions that the administration of President Barack Obama had committed to in the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord.