Biden invites world leaders including Putin and Xi to climate summit
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 Barbuda
- President Alberto Fernandez, Argentina
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia
- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
- Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Bhutan
- President 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 Congo
- Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark
- President Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission
- President Charles Michel, European Council
- President 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, Israel
- Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy
- Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Jamaica
- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Japan
- President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya
- President David Kabua, Republic of the Marshall Islands
- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico
- Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand
- President 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 Arabia
- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore
- President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa
- Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain
- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
- President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emirates
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United Kingdom
- President Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnam