Some of the world's top emitters reaffirmed or raised their targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts at the launch of a two-day climate summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The commitments coincided with Biden's announcement that the U.S. will significantly toughen its emissions targets under the Paris Agreement on climate change after officially reentering the worldwide pact in February. As part of a new nationally determined contribution to the Paris deal, the U.S. will reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

"Meeting this moment is about more than preserving our planet," Biden said April 22 at the Leaders Summit on Climate. "It's also about providing a better future for all of us."

The president repeated goals from his recently introduced infrastructure plan to invest in existing and future clean energy technologies, clean up abandoned mines and oil and gas wells, and build next-generation electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. The infrastructure proposal is part of Biden's effort to decarbonize the U.S. power sector by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions economywide by 2050.

But with the U.S. representing less than 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, "no nation can solve this crisis on our own," Biden said. "All of us, particularly those of us who represent the world's largest economies, we have to step up."

He also called the gathering a "first step" toward the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, this November, where signatories to the Paris Agreement will officially update their emissions strategies.

China

As the top global greenhouse gas emitter, China has committed to peaking its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

During a virtual address at the White House summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed those targets and pledged to "strictly control coal-fired power generation projects." Xi said China will "strictly limit the increase in coal consumption" over the country's 14th five-year planning period running from 2021-2025 and will "phase it down" during the country's 15th five-year period.

"As long as we unite in our purposes and efforts, we will rise above the global climate and environment challenges and leave a clean and beautiful world to future generations," he concluded.

Xi emphasized that such action "requires extraordinary hard efforts from China" and called on developed countries to help developing nations with the green transition.

European Union

As the third-biggest emitter behind China and the U.S., the EU is also ramping up efforts to curb emissions.

On April 21, the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member governments agreed to the bloc's first-ever climate law.

With the policy in place, "we write into stone the goal set out by the European Green Deal to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during the White House summit. The EU has also agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 from a 1990 baseline, with the European Commission tabling proposals in July on how to accomplish the goal.

"Carbon must have its price because nature cannot pay the price any longer," von der Leyen said.

Europe's efforts to recover from the coronavirus pandemic present an opportunity to invest in decarbonization. In total, 30% of Europe's recovery spending, or €1.8 trillion, is earmarked for climate-related goals, according to von der Leyen.

While Europe is working to be the first climate-neutral continent, she encouraged other attendees at the April 22 summit to "set together a new global benchmark for climate neutrality."

Other commitments

The summit gave other world leaders a chance to showcase their climate commitments. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada has a new target to reduce emissions by 40% to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and will "continually strengthen our plan and take even more actions" to get to net-zero by 2050.

As part of that effort, the U.S. and Canada on April 22 announced a joint initiative to help governments around the world in "greening" their operations. The partnership is aimed at enabling "countries around the world to have an opportunity to share lessons learned, promote innovation and, where relevant and possible, set common greening government goals to support the work underway by countries to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement," according to a release from the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

To reach its emissions goals, Canada has a price on carbon that will reach $170 per tonne in 2030. Trudeau said the country is also investing in public transit, clean energy, and decarbonizing the steel and aluminum industries. With Canada a major oil producer and exporter, Trudeau said he understands that the clean energy transition "will not be easy," but "we should be able to find solutions and create real change, and that is why we're here today."

The U.K., which is hosting the COP26 gathering in November, is already halfway to achieving net-zero emissions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said April 22. Johnson said he thought that countries signing on to the Paris deal can satisfy the target to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees C but that wealthy countries must commit more financially to helping developing nations.

"It's vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive, politically correct green act of bunny-hugging," Johnson said. "This is about growth and jobs, and I think [President Biden] was absolutely right to stress that."