President Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual climate summit next month, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdoğan, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The summit is intended to reconvene the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which includes the 17 countries responsible for the majority of both global emissions and global GDP. A “small” number of business and societal leaders will also take part in the summit, which will take place on April 22 and April 23.
According to the White House, the Leaders Summit on Climate will focus on reducing emissions to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius, the economic benefits of taking action on climate, and technologies that will reduce emissions, among other things. The White House says the summit will be publicly streamed.
The president has made John Kerry his special presidential envoy for climate.
Mr. Biden has made a number of unilateral moves on climate change, including rejoining the Paris climate agreement, directing the interior secretary to freeze new oil and gas leases on public lands and offshore waters, and reviewing existing leasing and permitting practices regarding fossil fuel development on federal lands.
Below is the list world leaders he invited:
Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Antigua and BarbudaPresident Alberto Fernandez, Argentina Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BangladeshPrime Minister Lotay Tshering, BhutanPresident Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada President Sebastián Piñera, Chile President Xi Jinping, People’s Republic of China President Iván Duque Márquez, Colombia President Félix Tshisekedi, Democratic Republic of the CongoPrime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark President Ursula von der Leyen, European CommissionPresident Charles Michel, European CouncilPresident Emmanuel Macron, France President Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India President Joko Widodo, Indonesia Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IsraelPrime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy Prime Minister Andrew Holness, JamaicaPrime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya President David Kabua, Republic of the Marshall IslandsPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New ZealandPresident Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway President Andrzej Duda, Poland President Moon Jae-in, Republic of Korea President Vladimir Putin, The Russian Federation King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaPrime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, SingaporePresident Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, SpainPresident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, TurkeyPresident Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab EmiratesPrime Minister Boris Johnson, United KingdomPresident Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnam
Credit: Yahoo News