28 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL which works to expand access to climate data; and the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership. Third, we have pursued strong and deep bilateral partnerships to work shoulder to shoulder with more than 80 countries across all regions to build climate resilience and cut emissions. This work has been a whole-of-government effort, leveraging the diplomatic acumen of the State Department, the development expertise of USAID, and the technical savvy of nearly 20 other interagency partners. In January 2021, the Biden administration hit the ground running when it came to the international climate issue. On day one, the president signed the instrument to rejoin the Paris Agreement; a few days later, he issued an executive order that expressly put the climate issue—deemed a “crisis” for both the United States and the world—at the center of U.S. foreign policy and national security. The administration sought to achieve, in essence, three objectives: • Get the United States back on track, which included rejoining the Paris Agreement and expeditiously preparing the U.S. emission reduction target under that agreement (a so-called “nationally determined contribution” or NDC). • Exercise U.S. climate leadership, which included, among other things, appointing former Secretary of State John Kerry as the first special presidential envoy for climate (SPEC); reinvigorating the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum; hosting the Leaders Summit on Climate within the first 100 days; and actively engaging on the climate issue in relevant multilateral fora (G7, G20, various UN bodies, etc.) as well as bilaterally. • Promote increased climate action to keep within reach a 1.5-degree Celsius limit on global temperature rise, particularly through engagement with the world’s major economies. Under the extraordinary leadership of Secretary Kerry, and with critical support from regional and functional bureaus, embassies, and USAID missions, the SPEC office and the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) teamed up in 2021 to raise the profile of the climate crisis on the global agenda. Thanks in large measure to U.S. diplomatic efforts, many countries, including key major economies, increased the stringency of their nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement and joined various emissionreducing initiatives. These included the U.S.-inspired Global Methane Pledge, which has grown into a movement of more than 150 countries dedicated to the global goal of cutting methane emissions 30 percent by 2030, the fastest way to reduce near-term warming. We also co-hosted the Our Ocean Conference with Palau, focusing heavily on the ocean-climate nexus, and we launched the First Movers Coalition, which aims to build credible early market demand for emerging climate technologies to catalyze their commercial adoption. (See the article by Burkolter on page 43 for more on the First Movers Coalition.) In terms of the formal multilateral regime, we strongly supported the 2021 U.K.-hosted COP (Conference of Parties), whose outcome was very significant. The consensus Glasgow Climate Pact leaned into 1.5 degrees Celsius as the needed limit on global temperature rise and called for various actions to reduce emissions, increase climate resilience, and enhance climate finance, particularly to help developing countries adapt to climate impacts. The International Energy Agency concluded post-Glasgow that—with full implementation—the combination of formal and informal commitments of states and other actors would put the world on a trajectory toward a 1.8-degree Celsius limit on warming—potentially a serious improvement. Recognizing that “with full implementation” is a major caveat, the United States approached 2022 as a year of “implementation plus” (i.e., promoting the carrying out of existing pledges while at the same time working to raise ambition even closer to the 1.5-degree Celsius limit). We brokered an outcome at the International Civil Aviation Organization that sets the international aviation sector on a This work has been a whole-of-government effort, leveraging the diplomatic acumen of the State Department, the development expertise of USAID, and the technical savvy of nearly 20 other interagency partners.
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