In climate negotiations there's a dramatic rich-poor nation gap. Biden said his new commitment would help rich nations reach their goal. The Biden administration set a 2024 goal to reach the $11.4 billion mark.Īs part of the fight against climate change, rich nations for many years have promised to spend $100 billion a year in climate help, but a new study shows that they're $20 billion a year short. That would mean increasing assistance to about $11.4 billion a year - after five months ago doubling the amount to $5.7 billion a year. financial aid to poorer countries to help them switch to cleaner energy and cope with the “merciless” effects of climate change. “Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants.”īiden offered a robust endorsement of the U.N.'s relevance and ambition at a difficult time in history, and sought to reassure wary allies of U.S. “Today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed by the force of arms,” he said.
That set the table, he said, for his administration to shift its attention to intensive diplomacy at a moment with no shortage of crises facing the globe. The president offered an impassioned plea for cooperation, to friends and adversaries, arguing that overcoming a daunting list of crises “will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity.”īiden said the U.S., under his watch, had reached a turning point with the end of military operations in Afghanistan last month, closing out America's longest war. “We're opening a new era of relentless diplomacy, of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world,” Biden said. Instead, Biden used his address before the annual gathering of world leaders to make his case that the United States remains a reliable international partner following four years of President Donald Trump's “America first” foreign policy. withdrawal from Afghanistan and a diplomatic tempest with France. is not seeking “a new Cold War” with China.īut while stressing to fellow world leaders the urgency of working together, Biden avoided addressing criticism from allies about the chaotic U.S.
He decried military conflict and insisted the U.S. U.S. President Joe Biden summoned the world's nations to forcefully address the festering global issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and human rights abuses in his first address before the U.N.