Biden Offers Rare Praise for Russia's Putin on Final Day of Climate Summit

Opening the final session of the two-day virtual global climate summit, President Joe Biden says he wants to shift the conversation from climate threat to economic opportunities.

Biden said Friday, “This is a moment for all of us to build better economies for our children, our grandchildren."

Biden says America “is once again stepping into a leadership role” and pledges to cooperate with other nations in researching and deploying new strategies to decarbonize key industries.

Biden says future jobs will involve installing electric-vehicle charging stations, manufacturing solar panels, researching sustainable farming practices and working in other new industries. But he says economic transitions shouldn’t leave other workers behind. He says, “We must ensure that workers who thrived in yesterday’s and today’s industries” also have a bright future.

Biden says the hard work of implementing the ambitious climate change targets lies ahead and the two-day summit "is a start.”

Much of the proposed spending to address climate change is included in Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, which would pay for new roads, safe bridges and reliable public transit, while boosting electric vehicles, clean drinking water and investments in clean energy such as solar and wind power.

Biden’s plan faces a steep road in the closely divided Senate, where Republicans led by McConnell have objected.

The White House says administration officials will continue to reach out to Republicans and will remind them that the proposal’s ideas are already widely popular with Americans of all political persuasions.

The urgency comes as scientists say that climate change caused by coal plants, car engines and other fossil fuel use is worsening droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters and that humans are running out of time to stave off catastrophic extremes of global warming.

The event has featured the world's major powers - and major polluters - pledging to cooperate on cutting petroleum and coal emissions that are rapidly warming the planet.

In an announcement timed to his summit, Biden pledged the U.S. will cut fossil fuel emissions as much as 52% by 2030.

Allies joined the U.S. in announcing new moves to cut emissions. That's ahead of November's U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, where governments will say how far each is willing to go to cut the amount of fossil fuel fumes it pumps out.

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