Go forth and spend: Call for action closes US climate summit

In closing President Joe Biden's global climate summit, world leaders shared stories of their own nations' drives to break away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels

WASHINGTON -- World leaders shared tales of climate-friendly breakthroughs — and feverish quests for more — to close President Joe Biden's virtual global climate summit on Friday, from Kenyans abandoning kerosene lanterns for solar to Israeli start-ups straining for more efficient storage batteries. It was an exhortational end to an unusual pandemic-era summit hosted from a specially created TV-style set in the White House East Room. Biden's two-day gathering briefly united the heads of global rivals America, China and Russia — on screens, anyway — long enough to pledge cooperation on climate. It also saw the U.S. and a half-dozen allies commit to significant new efforts and financing to reduce climate-damaging emissions. Friday's closing message: Go forth and spend, making good on pledges for rapid transitions to cleaner vehicles, power grids and buildings to stave off the worst of global warming. “The commitments we’ve made must become real,” declared Biden, who is seeking $2.3 trillion from Congress for legislation that would partly go for electric charging stations, for laying out an efficient new national electrical grid and for capping abandoned oil and gas rigs and coal mines. “Commitment without doing anything is a lot of hot air, no pun intended.”