Biden hosts climate summit overshadowed by fuel costs

President Joe Biden hosts a virtual summit of major economies Friday attempting to tackle climate change just as fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine underlies the globe's reliance on fossil fuels.

This is Biden's third convening of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate since he took office in 2021 with a vow to make the United States a leader in the world's attempt to halt catastrophic global warming.

"This meeting of the MEF is a continuation of the president's efforts to use all levers to tackle the global climate crisis, urgently address rising costs around the world exacerbated by Russia's war on Ukraine, and put the US and allies on a path to long-term energy and food security," the White House said.

"In urging countries to enhance climate ambition, he invited fellow leaders to join the United States in a set of concrete, collective initiatives that will accelerate global action on climate."

A senior Biden administration official said 23 countries would be represented at the video conference, representing most of the world's major economies and "focused around the mitigation that they will be taking" on climate impacts.

At a previous session in September 2021, Biden and the European Union announced a pledge to cut emissions of methane, a planet-warming gas. This was formally launched at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow and now has more than 100 countries signed on.

Friday's gathering will be the largest leader-level gathering before COP27, the follow-up summit, set to take place in Egypt this November.

But highlighting diplomatic complications besetting the search for international cooperation on the global climate threat, Russia will not be attending Friday's summit.

China will be represented only at the level of its climate envoy, rather than President Xi Jinping, the White House said. And India is not on the official list of attendees, either.

- Inflation specter -

For Biden, the push to move the world away from fossil fuels comes also at an awkward domestic political moment.

Western sanctions aimed at crippling major energy producer Russia have helped send fuel costs sharply higher in Europe and the United States, with inflation generally soaring as a result.

Facing a potential wipeout for his Democratic party in midterm congressional elections this November, Biden is scrambling to encourage increased domestic oil production and he will make his first trip as president to another key energy exporter, Saudi Arabia, in July.

The senior official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the Russia-inspired crisis was a wake-up call for efforts to move away from oil and natural gas.

It has "presented a moment of doubling down if you will, toward accelerating our actions on the decarbonizing of transportation and other sectors, looking at efficiency of fertilizer and on many of our objectives that provide greater energy security," the official said.

This is "an important moment for us to double down on all of these areas that provide greater efficiency and underscoring the importance of clean and renewable" energy, the official said, "rather than global energy systems that rely on fossil fuel markets."

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