In response to President Biden’s speech at COP27, Ashfaq Khalfan, Oxfam America’s Climate Justice Director, made the following statement:
“While we are pleased to hear President Biden’s pledge to renew and raise our climate ambitions, there is much more to do to turn words into action. What we need is the political will to reject the prioritization of fossil fuels and corporate greed over people’s lives – and President Biden must lead the US towards this reorientation.
“President Biden touted action that could help meet our climate goals through reduction of methane emissions and action to fund adaptation. While the new methane rule is positive, the US target (and the targets of all countries) are not enough to keep below a 1.5-degree temperature rise.
“In his speech, President Biden lauded the historic investments of the Inflation Reduction Act yet these investments still do not get us close to our emissions reduction goals and his administration has not taken the steps needed in the US to reject dirty fuels. New leases and subsidies continue to be approved despite surging oil and gas profits and consumers’ pain at the pump.
“We as a country cannot pat ourselves on the back for leading on climate when the Biden administration is still pushing Congress to enact Senator Joe Manchin’s dirty side deal, which threatens to fast-track dangerous fossil fuel and mining projects that harm frontline communities and weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In order to truly lead on climate, President Biden must repudiate Manchin’s dirty deal and galvanize Congress to strengthen protections for our communities and our climate.
“President Biden also spoke of the need to support developing countries in their transition by investing in clean energy but, unfortunately, agencies that use public money to fund projects around the world, like the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) are still not in line with the Paris Agreement. Further, the US now plans to raise private funding for clean energy by relying on carbon credits, which are false solutions and lead to greenwashing, rather than true investments in renewables.
“As the largest historic emitter and wealthiest country, the US has the responsibility to reduce emissions and advance a just transition – while ensuring that its plans for doing so advance equality, including racial and gender justice. While it is welcome that President Biden is promising to increase spending on adaptation in the Global South, he must increase the total offer of international public climate finance and agree to urgently setting up a fund for loss and damage at COP27.
“We urge President Biden to push for an end to fossil fuel subsidies, increase taxes on profits from polluting industries, and take up a wealth tax. There is money to support countries most impacted by climate change, we just need the political will to put people over profit.”