US vice-president, deputising for Joe Biden, tells summit that world faces a ‘pivotal moment’ in the climate crisis
The world is facing a “pivotal moment” in the climate crisis, Kamala Harris has told the Cop28 summit after the US vowed to phase out coal plants and slash methane emissions, but also came under attack for meagre assistance to developing countries and for its own booming oil and gas extraction industry.
The US vice-president, deputising for Joe Biden – who skipped the UN climate talks – said Biden’s administration had made the “largest climate investment in the history of our country, and some have said the world” via the Inflation Reduction Act.
The world is badly off track in efforts to slow the climate crisis, however, and Harris warned of the dangers posed by opponents of climate action, which could be seen as a reference to Donald Trump, who is likely to be Biden and Harris’s electoral opponent next year.
“This is a pivotal moment – our action collectively, or worse our inaction, will impact billions of people for decades to come,” Harris told delegates, including dozens of world leaders, at the summit in the United Arab Emirates. “Around the world there are those who seek to slow or stop our progress. Leaders who deny climate science, delay climate action and spread misinformation.”
Harris, who also used the trip to Dubai to discuss the war in Gaza, has been the highest-profile US attender of the talks, which have drawn representatives from nearly 200 countries to the two-week summit. Biden, who oversaw the lighting of the White House Christmas tree on Thursday, decided to not make the trip, citing various world crises including the Israel-Hamas conflict.
