U.S. President Joe Biden convened a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF), on Friday, for a discussion about intensifying efforts to tackle climate change.
Biden urged world leaders to join the United States and the European Union in a pledge to cut methane emissions to help build momentum.
In like manner, Biden held the virtual meeting in a follow-up to an Earth Day meeting he hosted in April to unveil new U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and press other countries to do more to curb theirs.
Biden called on other nations to join an agreement between the United States and the EU to aim to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030.
"This will not only rapidly reduce the rate of global warming, but ... it will also produce a very valuable side benefit like improving public health and agricultural output," Biden told the leaders. "We believe the collective goal is both ambitious but realistic, and we urge you to join us in announcing this pledge at COP26."
Leaders from Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Britain, and the European Union took part, along with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, according to the White House.
That is a smaller number of attendees than the April summit, which included remarks from China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top world leaders.
The American President said he wanted to use the MEF to complement other climate change forums. He affirmed that his team, including climate envoy John Kerry, is working to push countries to set ambitious targets for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
"Whatever commitments we make at COP26, we must all resolve together in Glasgow to continue strengthening our ambition and our actions ... to keep us ... below 1.5 degrees and keep that within reach," he noted.
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