Biden takes climate victory lap, calls on the private sector to step up

U.S. President Joe Biden had a clear message on climate on Tuesday: The United States is leading on climate, but this is the “perfect opportunity to go big” and companies with capital need to invest more. “Now is the time,” he said addressing the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Business Forum, adding that with a booming clean energy industry and newly lowered interest rates, businesses should have the “confidence to invest trillions that are on the sidelines in clean energy industries of the future.” And that includes low- and middle-income nations. Biden used the speech to take a victory lap on climate. The intro to his remarks was a video of climate and environmental organization leaders — and some of their celebrity spokespeople — extolling Biden’s achievements on climate and thanking the president. Biden spent much of the speech extolling the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping legislation targeted to reduce U.S. emissions by 50% by 2030, which is injecting $369 billion into climate and energy projects in the U.S. The speech was light on international climate policy — though Biden did give a shout-out to the U.S.-Kenya Climate and Clean Energy Industrial Partnership announced earlier this year. The initiative is designed to make climate and green industrialization a key pillar of the U.S. relationship with Kenya and serve as a signal of the U.S. government’s intent to advance a new green growth framework across the continent. “The United States has reasserted America's position as a global leader on climate. We are leading an all-out effort to partner with nations to reduce global emissions, to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” he said. “Across the board, America’s climate leadership encouraged American companies to invest private capital for clean energy development to low- and middle-income nations.”