Biden's credibility on climate in the balance at UN summit in Glasgow | NBC News |

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- President Joe Biden heads to a make-or-break global climate summit with one hand tied behind his back, with uncertainty over his ability to push the U.S. to forceful climate action muddying his message that other nations must step up.

For months, Biden made no secret of the fact that he wanted to show up at the U.N. summit in Glasgow with powerful measures signed into law to prove the U.S. was making good on his ambitious pledge to slash emissions. If not a signed law, at least a successful vote in Congress. If not a vote, at least unanimous Democratic support for a deal he could say was "as good as done."

He will arrive Monday in Scotland with none of the above, as ongoing wrangling within his own party casts a shadow of ambiguity over landmark U.S. climate legislation.

Biden's scaled-down spending bill has big upsides for climate fight | NBC News - Oct. 29, 2021 |

Many climate activists are applauding the $1.75 trillion spending bill unveiled Thursday by President Joe Biden, a move that experts say will be crucial to staving off the worst effects of global warming and building a more livable future.

Biden's proposed framework includes $555 billion in clean energy investments, incentives and tax credits that would help the country meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030. If passed, environmental experts said it's the type of legislation that could create much-needed momentum to slash pollution levels and address the climate crisis in the United States and on the global stage.

Why 'I can't breathe' is resonating with environmental justice activists

'Sapere aude'

The American people want to see Congress take on the big money special interests and address the crises facing working families today. Let's get it done. pic.twitter.com/xwuB2kctQ3

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 1, 2021

'Big mistake': Biden criticises Xi for not attending climate summit | @bevanshields [_link] pic.twitter.com/m9nPEfNhFJ

— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) November 2, 2021

COP26: Biden attacks China and Russia leaders for missing summit

'Sapere aude'

It's hilarious that you have some cons out trying to trick the media into thinking they care about climate change, and then elsewhere ... this. [_link]

— David Roberts (@drvolts) November 2, 2021

How can Biden achieve any rational policy when dealing with political and religious insanity across 50 states?

'Sapere aude'

Why does he always address serious global audiences as if they're all two and a half years old? #COP26 #COP26Glasgow #ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/f8r5q80PsP

— Brendan May (@bmay) November 2, 2021

Youngkin's win in blue Virginia offers Republicans a 2022 road map. [_link]

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) November 3, 2021

Energy positive: how Denmark's Samsø island switched to zero carbon | The Guardian - Feb. 24, 2017 |

Anyone doubting the potential of renewable energy need look no further than the Danish island of Samsø. The 4,000-inhabitant island nestled in the Kattegat Sea has been energy-positive for the past decade, producing more energy from wind and biomass than it consumes.

Samsø's transformation from a carbon-dependent importer of oil and coal-fuelled electricity to a paragon of renewables started in 1998. That year, the island won a competition sponsored by the Danish ministry of environment and energy that was looking for a showcase community - one that could prove the country's freshly announced Kyoto target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 21% was, in fact, achievable.

Interview: Samsø's Renewable Energy Magician

Hermansen's native Samsø is a small, blustery island nestled in Denmark's Kattegat Strait. At one time it was a cluster of farming communities powered by coal and oil, now it's an impressive showcase of sustainable power: wind turbines, district heating plants, rapeseed oil tractors and solar panels.

POWER OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Over a ten-year period, as a result of skillful community engagement, realistic analysis, and deep understanding of local sensitivities, Hermansen helped set up investment plans for residents to buy in to a suite of alternative energies including wind and solar. Islanders exchanged their oil-burning furnaces for centralized plants that burn leftover straw or wood chips to produce heat and hot water. They bought shares in new wind turbines, which generated the capital to build 11 large land-based turbines, enough to meet the entire island's electricity needs.

Netherlands unlikely to sign fossil fuel pledge at Cop26 at this stage [_link]

— NL Times (@NL_Times) November 3, 2021

.... waiting nearly a year for Rutte IV

'Sapere aude'

Wow, wat een speech; dit is een echte leider!!! #MiaMottley #Barbados [_link]

— Miss Little Bean (@EllenBoontje1) November 3, 2021

Tuvalu minister to address Cop26 knee deep in seawater to highlight climate crisis [_link]

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) November 8, 2021

Republicans' Cop26 hopes undermined by colleagues' climate disdain [_link]

— Oliver Milman (@olliemilman) November 8, 2021

Highlighting the dismissal of climate science that permeates the GOP unlike any other major political party around the world, Steve Scalise, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, said last week that "it gets warmer, it gets colder - that's called Mother Nature".

Scalise added that "carbon emissions have been around from when before man walked the Earth ... the idea that hurricanes or wildfires were caused in just the last few years is just fallacy."

....
Other Republicans attacked Biden's attendance at the talks. Senator John Barrasso, of Wyoming, questioned the emissions of flying a "bloated US delegation" to Scotland while Senator John Kennedy, of Louisiana, said that Biden, his climate envoy John Kerry and "other Trotsky-like wokers" want to "buy natural gas and oil from other countries, and basically give countries that hate us more money, so they'll have weapons to try to kill us".

The comments have prompted ridicule from climate experts.

....
With this lacking, critics say the party's gradual change in rhetoric is little more than a superficial rebrand to avoid alienating the growing number of American voters, battered by several years of worsening fires and floods, who say they are alarmed about the climate emergency.  Republicans also remain closely aligned to the fossil fuel industry. At a recent Congressional questioning of the oil and gas companies that knowingly caused dangerous global heating, several GOP members apologized to executives for the hearing and refrained from asking them about climate change.

How successful is the #COP26 climate conference?

Well, a new report by @climateactiontr based on promises made in Glasgow found that - contrary to all media spins - emissions will be twice as high in 2030 as they need to be to stay within 1.5C. [_link] pic.twitter.com/23xfU2UqOg

— Matthias Schmelzer (@MGSchmelzer) November 9, 2021

Fossil Fuel lobbyists have no place at #COP26. Instead, we should prioritise Indigenous peoples and civil society, according to @kevkeane111 of @AnTaisce 1/2 pic.twitter.com/BGiGqjGgwj

— An Taisce (@AnTaisce) November 10, 2021

Obama says he finds it "particularly disappointing" that the leaders of Russia and China didn't show up to COP26, and that the "world has to step up and it has to step up now." pic.twitter.com/rnnHP5Ika5

— Oliver Milman (@olliemilman) November 8, 2021

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua announced the U.S. and China's framework agreement to work together to tackle climate change at the #COP26 summit pic.twitter.com/9iQcRTSwHY

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 11, 2021

#COP26: While the US & China frame the 2020s as the decade where we need to see real action, their statement falls short of the call by climate vulnerable countries demanding that nations come back to the table every year with greater ambition until the 1.5C gap is closed.
(2/2)

— Jennifer Morgan (@climatemorgan) November 10, 2021

I welcome today's agreement between China and the USA to work together to take more ambitious #ClimateAction in this decade.

Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction. #COP26

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 10, 2021

To help contextualize the newly released #IPCC Report, here's 800,000 years of Earth's CO2 history in 30 seconds. pic.twitter.com/goeQYSzdhE

— Kris Karnauskas (@OceansClimateCU) August 13, 2021

Geothermal drilling will threaten water supply: Drinking water companies [_link]

— NL Times (@NL_Times) December 2, 2021

We can't address the climate crisis unless we also take on global inequality | Lucas Chancel [_link]

— The Guardian (@guardian) December 7, 2021