President Biden announced a crackdown on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, during his second day at a global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
It came soon after he pledged American support for a new global push to end deforestation.
But his promise of U.S. leadership comes as his domestic policy agenda stalls, snarling some of his key climate promises.
He spelled out the benefits of tackling methane leaks to an audience of world leaders, climate officials and a Hollywood star.
Leonardo Di Caprio was spotted listening to Biden’s speech, after attending a fringe event in Glasgow the night before.
Biden announced that about 100 nations had pledged to tackle methane emissions.
‘It’s gonna improve health, reduce asthma, respiratory rate emergencies,’ said Biden.
‘It’s going to improve the food supply as well by cutting crop losses and related ground level pollution.
‘That’s going to boost our economies, saving companies money reducing methane leaks, catching methane turning it into new revenue streams, as well as creating good paying union jobs for our workers.’
Leonardo Di Caprio (c) was among the audience as President Biden spelled out his support for global efforts to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas
Di Caprio attended a fringe event in Glasgow on Monday evening and was seen arriving at the main COP26 summit site on Tuesday to hear Biden speak
The main plank of the policy is tighter EPA regulations on leaks and emissions
His key weapon is tighter Environmental Protection Agency regulations for the oil and gas sector.
Earlier he signed up to a plan to end deforestation by 2030.
‘Today I’m announcing a new plan to conserve global forest, which will bring together a full range of US government tools, diplomatic, financial and policy to halt forests loss, restore critical carbon sinks, and improve land management,’ he said.
The British government said leaders from countries representing more than 85 percent of the world’s forests – including Brazil, China and the U.S. – had signed up with new commitments.
‘Forests have the potential to reduce carbon globally by more than one third. By more than one third,’ said Biden.
‘So we need to approach this issue with the same seriousness of purpose as decarbonizing our economies. That’s what we’re doing in the United States.’
Climate activists said they needed to see more detail in the plans before they could judge the impact of the agreement.
A day earlier, Biden told the gathering of world leaders, activists and climate officials that they could rely on American leadership to help limit global warming.
Sen. Joe Manchin announced on Monday that he remained uncertain about the cost of the Biden’s Build Back Better, which includes measures to stop methane leaking from old mines
On Tuesday, Biden also joined British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a Build Back Better World event, part of an effort to help the developing world tackle climate change
Later on Tuesday he announced a push to crack down on emissions of methane.
Methane has a bigger impact on the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide and reducing leaks is seen as a major step to meeting climate targets.
Biden promised during the COP26 summit to work with the European Union and other nations to reduce global emissions by almost a third by 2030.
Some of his efforts, such as capping old gas wells and sealing abandoned coal mines are in the Build Back Better plan which is help up by centrist Democrats
Comments by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the holdouts against the plan, that he still has doubts about the president’s $1.75 trillion domestic policy agenda, loomed over Biden’s appearance in Glasgow, Scotland.
But administration officials shrug off any suggestion that domestic politics is weakening the president’s ability to get things done on the global stage.
Just as he has been today with leaders around the world, the president has been robustly engaging with folks all around Washington, bringing them together and driving forward action at a pace and a scale that meets the moment on climate,’ said a senior administration official.
He pointed to progress on methane as an example, and said it would have a catalytic effect on other nations.
But Manchin holds a deciding vote in the Senate, and has managed to crop key part of Biden’s environmental proposals from the ‘Build Back Better’ plan.
Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry is part of the team pushing the president’s agenda at COP26. On Tuesday, he was spotted giving an interview to CNN
Even so, he announced on Monday that he remained uncertain about the cost of the proposals.
The tension at home comes as Biden and his big team of officials tries to use COP26 to demonstrate American leadership.
In his Monday speech to delegates, Biden said the U.S. ‘is not only back at the table, it can hopefully lead by the power of our example,’ even as he admitted, ‘I know that hasn’t always been the case.’
The methane plan is part of that push.
It includes new safety regulations by the Transportation Department to eradicate leaks in the country’s three million miles of pipelines.
The Interior Department is tasked with clamping down on methane burned on public lands.
But it also depends on Biden getting his bills through Congress.
‘Build Back Better would scale up the current Abandoned Mine Land program, funding historic remediation efforts that would result in dramatic methane emissions reductions from thousands of currently leaking, abandoned coal mines,’ said a White House fact sheet.
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