Ukraine

President Joe Biden vowed at UN climate talks on Friday that the United States was on track to slash its carbon emissions, urging all nations to ramp up their own efforts to avert catastrophic global warming.

His speech came at the halfway point of a two-week COP27 conference in Egypt where rich polluters like the US are under pressure to finally provide the funding developing countries have been promised in the battle against climate change.

Biden touted the passage of a massive, $369 billion spending package to green the US economy as an achievement that would “shift the paradigm” for his country and the entire world.
“The climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security and the very life of the planet,” Biden said.

In an hours-long visit to Egypt before heading to Asia for ASEAN and G20 summits, Biden said the United States “will meet” its goal of cutting emissions 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

He also announced plans to step up efforts to cut methane emissions — a major contributor to global warming — by plugging fossil fuel leaks and requiring companies to act on leaks reported by credible third parties.

“To permanently bend the emissions curve, every nation needs to step up. At this gathering, we must renew and raise our climate ambitions,” he said.

“The United States has acted, everyone has to act. It’s a duty and responsibility of global leadership,” said Biden, whose administration also announced plans to require federal contractors to reduce their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sent energy prices soaring, has raised concerns that tackling climate change has dropped down the priority list of many countries.

“Russia’s war only enhances the urgency of the need to transition the world off its dependence on fossil fuels,” Biden said.

His 22-minute speech was briefly interrupted by a small group of demonstrators, who howled and attempted to unfurl a banner protesting fossil fuels before they were removed by UN security.

New research shows just how dauntingly hard it will be to meet the ambitious goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — requiring emissions to be slashed nearly in half by 2030.

The new study — published on Friday in the journal Earth System Science Data — found that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are on track to rise one percent in 2022 to reach an all-time high.

Biden’s visit to COP27 came three days after US midterm elections that have raised questions about what the result could mean for US climate policy.
His climate speech earned mixed reviews from COP27 participants.

“President Biden is advancing the boldest climate agenda of any American president by far,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute.

But he said the US was “grossly underperforming” on its commitments in a $100-billion-a-year global climate funding programme to help developing nations transition to renewable energy and build resilience.

Biden has pledged to double the US contribution to $11.4 billion, but Democrats may be running out of time to honour that as control of the House of Representatives appears poised to shift to the Republicans from January in the wake of this week’s vote.

Others pointed out that the United States has previously blocked efforts to establish a “loss and damage” mechanism that would see rich polluters compensate poorer countries for the destruction from climate-induced natural disasters.

Biden did not address the “loss and damage” mechanism idea in his speech, though the United States has allowed it to be on the official COP27 agenda.

“Joe Biden comes to COP27 and makes new promises but his old promises have not even been fulfilled,” said Mohamed Dowd, founder of the Power Shift Africa think tank.

“He is like a salesman selling goods with endless small print.”
Before his COP27 address, Biden met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of COP27, where he raised human rights issues with his host amid concerns over the health of jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is on a hunger strike.

Russian forces have launched a major military assault on Ukraine, with reports of explosions near major cities across the country.
In a pre-dawn TV statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not plan to occupy Ukraine but said Moscow’s response would be “instant” if anyone tried to stop this.

 Shortly afterward, attacks were reported on Ukrainian military targets, reports the BBC.
Ukraine said that “Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.
In a video statement on Thursday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said martial law was now being imposed across all of Ukraine.
“No panic. We’re strong. We’re ready for anything. We’ll defeat everyone because we are Ukraine,” the president said.

He said Russia carried out strikes on Ukraine’s military infrastructure and border guard units. Military headquarters, airfields, and military warehouses in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Kharkiv, officials said.
Reports are also coming of explosions in several Ukrainian cities and gunfire near the main Boryspil airport in the capital Kyiv. Warning sirens were heard blaring in the city with a population of about three million.
In a last-ditch attempt to avert war shortly before Putin’s announcement, Zelensky had warned that Russia could start “a major war in Europe” and urged Russian citizens to oppose it.

Zelensky said Russia had almost 200,000 troops and thousands of combat vehicles on Ukraine’s borders.
Ukraine’s Western allies had also repeatedly warned Russia was poised to invade. Responding to Russia’s assault, US President Joe Biden said Washington and its allies would respond in a united and decisive way to “an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces” on Ukraine.

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “appalled by the horrific events in Ukraine” and that President Putin “has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack”. He added that he had spoken to Ukraine’s president to discuss how to respond and promised decisive action by the UK and allies.

Russia launched its military operation just days after recognizing the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The breakaway regions – who control large swathes of the Donbas region – later asked Moscow for military support.
In his announcement early on Thursday, Putin said the military operation’s objective was to defend those people who had been subjected for eight years to “genocide by the Kyiv regime”.

It was an apparent reference to mass street protests in Ukraine that ousted Pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
Putin also said that Moscow would seek “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have repeatedly rejected as absurd Putin’s claims that Ukraine was being run by neo-Nazis, instead of pointing out that – unlike an authoritarian Russia – Ukraine was now a nation with growing democratic institutions.

Fears of a Russian attack have been rising for months.
Putin has repeatedly accused the US and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining the Nato military alliance and offer Moscow security guarantees.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state of emergency was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers and is now in force nationwide.

It introduces personal document checks, blocks military reservists from leaving the country, bans mass gatherings, and places restrictions on radio communication systems. Kyiv’s mayor said checkpoints would be set up inroads into the city, and access to government buildings would be restricted