U.S. President Joe Biden joins a CEO Summit on semiconductor resistance and supply chain via video conferencing from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 12, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Amr Alfiky | Getty Images
More than 300 companies and investors have called on President Joe Biden to nearly double U.S. targets to reduce global warming emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.
In a letter released on Tuesday, corporate leaders from companies such as Google, Apple, Walmart, Unilever and General Electric praised the Biden administration for rejoining the Paris Global Climate Agreement and aggressively tackling change. climate.
The push by executives of some of the largest companies in the country to set the goal of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases by at least 50%, a goal in line with what environmental groups want , advances the climate of world leaders. summit hosted by the administration on 22 April.
The Biden administration plans to unveil a stricter emissions target for the Paris agreement at or before world leaders’ summits. The Obama administration proposed reducing emissions to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025, but former President Donald Trump halted federal efforts to achieve that goal and withdrew the United States from the deal. Paris.
The companies that signed the charter include more than $ 3 trillion in annual revenue and more than $ 1 trillion in assets. The letter indicates a change in the private sector to address its own impact on climate change and better align with the goals of the Biden administration, which has promised to put the country on a path towards net carbon emissions by to 2050.
Biden’s climate ambitions, including a broad package of infrastructure that invest heavily in clean energy technologies, would be largely paid for by raising corporate tax rates, an action that could trigger objections from some of the same companies that they signed the letter.
The president has also pledged to adopt new regulations for producers of fossil fuels, cars and electrical services. The signatories to the charter include utilities such as PG&E Corporation and Exelon, but there are no notable oil and gas companies.
“Many of us have set or are setting emission reduction targets in line with climate science since the establishment of the Paris agreement,” the corporate leaders wrote in the letter. “The private sector has bought renewable energy at a record rate and, along with countless cities across the country, many have committed to a clean zero-emissions future.”
Almost every country in the world is part of the Paris Agreement, a non-binding historic agreement between nearly 200 nations to reduce their global warming emissions. The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases.