Good afternoon: Today’s PM — edited by Justin Green — is 497 words, a 2-minute read.

·  Stocks fell modestly today after reports that President Biden wants to nearly double the capital gains tax paid by wealthy Americans.

·  Sen. Tim Scott will deliver the GOP’s rebuttal to Biden’s joint address to Congress.

Please join Axios’ Joann Muller and Erica Pandey tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET for conversations about electric and autonomous vehicles with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and San Francisco-Marin Food Bank executive director Tanis Crosby. Sign up here.

2.     Japan: Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Japan would cut its emissions by 46% from 2013 levels by 2030.

3.     South Korea: President Moon Jae-in pledged to end all new public financing for overseas coal projects, and will submit new emissions targets later this year.

4.     Brazil: President Jair Bolsonaro pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

5.     China: President Xi Jinping said his country — the world’s largest consumer of coal — will attempt to “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” over the next five years.

Go deeper: More details on the pledges, via Axios’ Jacob Knutson.

WATCH LIVE: Greta Thunberg, climate experts testify before House on fossil fuel subsidies

Streamed live 16 hours ago, 4.22.2021  PBS NewsHour

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Earth Day 2021 Doodle

Apr 21, 2021, GoogleDoodles

This year’s annual Earth Day Doodle highlights how everyone can plant the seed to a brighter future—one sapling at a time. Happy Earth Day 2021! Learn more: http://www.google.com/doodles/earth-d…? ——- To follow Google Doodles on YouTube, subscribe to: @GoogleDoodles? Follow Google Doodles on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/GoogleDoodles?

President Biden pledges 50% cut in US carbon emissions at global climate summit – BBC News

Apr 22, 2021  BBC News, 5:39

President Biden has opened a major global climate summit with a call to other world leaders to step up to the challenge. Joe Biden pledged to cut US emissions by at least half from 2005 levels by the end of this decade but he warned that his country couldn’t take action alone. He told world leaders that scientists were calling this the “decisive decade” for tackling climate change and action was needed now. The latest data shows China is the world’s biggest producer of carbon dioxide, emitting 28% of global output. China is second biggest, producing 15% with India producing 7%. Sophie Raworth presents BBC News at Ten reporting by science editor David Shukman and North America editor Jon Sopel. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog? #BBCNews?

It’s time to ‘get serious’ about climate change, Boris Johnson @BBC News? live ? BBC

Apr 22, 2021  BBC, 10:49

Subscribe and ? to OFFICIAL BBC YouTube ? https://bit.ly/2IXqEIn? Stream original BBC programmes FIRST on BBC iPlayer ? https://bbc.in/2J18jYJ? ? Subscribe and ? @BBC News ? https://bit.ly/3a1zyip? ? Stream BBC News live on BBC iPlayer ? https://bbc.in/3b64IVP? ? Coronavirus / Covid-19 ? https://bbc.in/3luQp33? ? Follow BBC News live updates here ? https://bbc.in/2JmUswL? It’s Thurdsday 22 April. Our top stories this morning 0:00? The US will attempt to re-assert its global leadership on climate change as President Joe Biden hosts 40 leaders at a virtual summit in the White House. Get the full story ? https://bbc.in/3ekUuEk? Get the latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC’s Breakfast team live on iPlayer daily from 6am. BBC Breakfast | BBC News | BBC #BBC? #BBCiPlayer? #BBCNews? #BBCNewsLive? #BBCCoronavirus? #Coronavirus? #Covid?-19 #CoronavirusOutbreak? #Corona? #CoronavirusUK?

The New York Times: Biden’s Intelligence Director Vows to Put Climate at ‘Center’ of Foreign Policy,

Last Updated 

April 22, 2021, 10:01 p.m. ET 5 hours ago

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, struck a note of urgency in telling world leaders that climate change must be “fully integrated” with national security. President Biden committed the United States to cutting emissions by half by the end of the decade at a virtual Earth Day summit.

President Biden speaking on Thursday during a virtual summit on climate change from the East Room of the White House.Credit…Pool photo by Al Drago

Here’s what you need to know:

Biden’s intelligence director tells world leaders climate is now ‘at the center’ of U.S. foreign policy.·

Biden wants to slash emissions. Success would mean a very different America.·

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, promises to ‘strictly limit’ coal.·

Here’s what Canada, Russia and other countries have committed to so far today.·

The virtual summit makes history, but proves even world leaders aren’t immune to tech issues.·

Fossil fuel industries react carefully to Biden’s emissions pledge.·

Biden plans to nominate ocean scientist Rick Spinrad to head NOAA, the country’s premier climate science agency.

Biden’s intelligence director tells world leaders climate is now ‘at the center’ of U.S. foreign policy. 

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, speaking on Capitol Hill last week.Credit…Pool photo by Graeme Jennings

Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, told world leaders on Thursday that climate change was no longer a peripheral issue but now “at the center” of U.S. foreign policy, with far-reaching impacts on force deployments and the stability of hard-hit regions.

Ms. Haines, speaking at this week’s virtual global climate conference, struck a tone of urgency at variance with the attitudes of many of her predecessors, who downplayed the role of rising sea levels, droughts, crop failures, fires, diseases and more frequent severe weather events.

“To address climate change properly it must be at the center of a country’s national security and foreign policy,” she said, echoing the words of Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, who addressed the conference a few minutes earlier.

“It needs to be fully integrated with every aspect of our analysis in order to allow us not only to monitor the threat but also, critically, to ensure that policymakers understand the importance of climate change on seemingly unrelated policies,” Ms. Haines said.

Her comments came after NATO officials announced they would likely agree on a climate “action plan” to reduce emissions by military units and conduct an alliance-wide assessment of the potential threats arising from climate disruptions.

On Thursday, the C.I.A. announced it was adding a new category covering the environment to its World Factbook. The agency’s unclassified guide will now provide the latest country data on climate, air pollutants, infectious diseases, food security, waste and other environmental topics.

Ms. Haines began by saying that the intelligence services had long recognized the importance of climate change — and praised efforts by the C.I.A. over the last three decades to identify the geopolitical impact of climate-based changes in Russia, Asia, Africa and the Arctic.

“We have not always made it a key priority,” she added.

The Biden administration has promised to put a new focus on climate change at the nation’s intelligence agencies. Top intelligence officials all pledged in their confirmation hearings to increase their agencies’ focus on climate.

A pair of recent intelligence reports have presented a grim picture of climate change. The annual worldwide threat assessment, which looks at short-term challenges, said extreme weather caused by climate change would increase the potential for surges in migration and cause instability around the globe.

The changes will “exacerbate political instability and humanitarian crises,” the annual threat report said.

The intelligence agencies issued even more dire warnings with the quadrennial Global Trends report issued on April 8, which argued that climate change would contribute to instability, strain military readiness and encourage new political movements. It said that all societies would be forced to adapt to a warmer planet through changes both small and complex, including the building of massive new sea walls and the relocation of cities and towns.

The report said the physical effects of climate change would intensify over the next 20 years, particularly in the 2030s, and the impact would fall disproportionately on poor parts of the world.

Some Republicans have expressed reservations at expanding the intelligence community’s focus on climate change. At a hearing last week, Ms. Haines argued that while there was partisan division over the issue, intelligence analysts have been examining the issue for decades during administrations of both parties.

“It’s just become increasingly accepted as something that is part of the national security landscape,” she said.

— Glenn Thrush and Julian E. Barnes

U.S. says it will sharply cut emissions and increase funds to vulnerable countries to fight climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes part in the virtual international climate summit with President Biden on Thursday.Credit…Pool photo by Kay Nietfeld

President Biden on Thursday declared America “has resolved to take action” on climate change, and the White House said it would substantially increase the money it offers to developing countries to address the issue.

In a show of renewed resolve after four years of the Trump administration’s unvarnished climate denial, Mr. Biden formally pledged that the United States would cut its emissions at least in half from 2005 levels by 2030. His administration also announced it intends to double by 2024 the amount of money it offers to help developing countries, compared with what the United States spent annually in the second half of the Obama administration.

Barely three months into Mr. Biden’s presidency, the contrast with his science-denying predecessor, President Donald J. Trump, could not have been more striking.

“The signs are unmistakable, the science is undeniable and the cost of inaction keeps mounting,” Mr. Biden said.

John Kerry, President Biden’s global climate change envoy, said he believes the United States will meet and possibly even surpass the new goal.

Speaking at the conclusion of the first day of the summit, Mr. Kerry called the goal “ambitious but appropriate and achievable” and said the market is moving faster than expected in creating renewable energy and new breakthroughs are likely on the horizon in battery storage and other areas.

“Is it doable? Will we probably exceed it? I expect yes,” Mr. Kerry said.

Asked what the Biden administration can do now to prevent a future president from gutting the climate plans as President Trump did to the Obama administration, Mr. Kerry noted that he fielded that question in virtually every diplomatic discussion over the past three months.

“You destroyed your credibility, you left the Paris Agreement, how can we trust you?” Mr. Kerry said other leaders asked him. He insisted the private sector will cement clean energy policies into reality even if Mr. Bidens’ policies stall or are someday overturned.,

“No politician, I think, can change what is now happening in the marketplace.”

The Biden administration said it plans to offer an estimated $5.7 billion a year by 2024. In a statement, the White House said that it would “work closely with Congress to meet these goals.”

Between 2013 and 2016, U.S. international climate finance was around $2.5 billion a year, including in the form of export credit and loans, based on government data from that time.

Joe Thwaites from the World Resources Institute said the foreign aid pledges were not especially ambitious. “The climate finance plan the Biden administration launched today starts to play catch up after the U.S. was largely absent for the last four years — when many other developed countries already doubled their climate finance, and some committed to doubling again before 2025,” he said.

The two-day summit comes at a time when scientists are warning that governments must take decisive action to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels. The consequences of exceeding that threshold includes mass species extinctions, water shortages and extreme weather events that will be most devastating to the poorest countries least responsible for causing global warming.

Officially, nations that are party to the Paris agreement are obligated to announce their new targets for emissions cuts in time for a United Nations conference in Scotland in November.

In an executive order announced late Thursday morning, the White House also said it would “seek to” end investments in “carbon-intensive” fossil fuel projects abroad. It was also not clear if that referred to money for gas pipelines and terminals. The United States is a leading exporter of gas, and development aid has been used to promote the expansion of gas, including in Africa.

Mr. Kerry said in his remarks that no country alone would be able to finance the transition to a green economy, adding that private banks and asset managers would have to align their investments accordingly.

The summit is the first of its kind to be convened by a United States president, and Mr. Biden is joined by other world leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.

While the summit is an international one, Mr. Biden’s speech was also aimed at a domestic audience, focusing not just on America’s obligation to help cut its global emissions but on the jobs he believes are available in greening the U.S. economy.

“The countries that take decisive actions now” to tackle climate change, Mr. Biden said, “will be the ones that reap the clean energy benefits of the boom that’s coming.”

Mr. Biden’s target of 50 percent to 52 percent by the end of the decade calls for a steep and rapid decline of fossil fuel use in virtually every sector of the American economy and marks the start of what is sure to be a bitter partisan fight over achieving it.

One of Mr. Biden’s biggest political obstacles is international: Republicans say the United States should not be asked to sacrifice if the world’s largest emitters will swallow U.S. efforts in their pollution.

Christopher Flavelle contributed reporting.

Biden wants to slash emissions. Success would mean a very different America.

By 2030, half of the country’s electricity would come from renewable sources such as wind.Credit…Bing Guan/Reuters

President Biden’s new pledge to slash the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decade is long on ambition and short on specifics, but experts say that success would require rapid and sweeping changes to virtually every corner of the nation’s economy, transforming the way Americans drive to work, heat their homes and operate their factories.

In several recent studies, researchers have explored what a future America might look like if it wants to achieve Mr. Biden’s goal: cutting the nation’s planet-warming emissions at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030.

By the end of the decade, those studies suggest, more than half of the new cars and S.U.V.s sold at dealerships would need to be powered by electricity, not gasoline. Nearly all coal-fired power plants would need to be shut down. Forests would need to expand. The number of wind turbines and solar panels dotting the nation’s landscape could quadruple.

It’s achievable in theory, researchers say, but it’s an enormous challenge. To get there, the Biden administration would probably need to put in place a vast array of new federal policies, many of which could face obstacles in Congress or the courts. And policymakers would have to take care in crafting measures that do not cause serious economic harm, such as widespread job losses or spikes in energy prices, that could lead to blowback.

“It’s not an easy task,” said Nathan Hultman, the director of the University of Maryland’s Center on Global Sustainability. “We won’t be able to sit back and hope that market forces alone will do the job.”

In two recent studies, Mr. Hultman and his colleagues modeled possible paths to achieving at least a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. The changes would be far-reaching:

·         By 2030, half of the country’s electricity would come from renewable sources such as wind, solar or hydropower, up from one-fifth today.

·         New natural gas plants would be built largely with technology that can capture carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the atmosphere — technology that is still in its infancy.

·         Virtually all of the 200 remaining coal plants in the U.S. would shut down unless they, too, can capture their emissions and bury them underground.

·         By 2030, two-thirds of new cars and S.U.V.s sold would be battery-powered, up from roughly 2 percent today.

·         All new buildings would be heated by electricity rather than natural gas.

·         The nation’s cement, steel and chemical industries would adopt stringent new energy-efficiency targets.

·         Oil and gas producers would slash emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, by 60 percent.

·         The nation’s forests would expand, and farming practices would be reworked, so that they pull 20 percent more carbon dioxide out of the air than they do today.

— Brad Plumer

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Biden Wants to Slash Emissions. Success Would Mean a Very Different America.

Hitting the targets could require a rapid shift to electric vehicles, the expansion of forests nationwide, development of complex new carbon-capture technology and many other changes, researchers said.

April 22, 2021

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, promises to ‘strictly limit’ coal.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, delivered a speech during the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday. Mr. Xi promised Thursday that China would limit coal consumption.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Xi Jinping of China said his country would “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” in the next five years and phase it down in the following five years.

That’s significant because China is, by far, the world’s largest coal consumer and is continuing to expand its fleet of coal-fired power plants. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel.

Mr. Xi repeated his pledge from last year to draw down carbon emissions to net zero by 2060. And, in a pointed reminder to his host, President Biden, he said that the industrialized countries of the West had a historic responsibility to act faster to reduce emissions.

The United States is history’s largest emitter. China is today’s largest emitter.

Mr. Xi added a conciliatory note by saying “China looks forward to working with the international community, including with the United States” on addressing climate change.

Neither China nor India, whose prime minister, Narendra Modi, spoke after Mr. Xi, made any new commitments to ramp up their climate ambitions. Mr. Modi repeated India’s pledge to expand its fleet of renewable energy projects, urged people to make lifestyle changes to address climate change, and announced a vague new partnership with the United States on green energy projects.

India’s once-galloping economy has slowed sharply and the country is currently in the throes of a deadly coronavirus surge.

— Somini Sengupta

Here’s what Canada, Russia and other countries have committed to so far today.

A video monitor in the East Room of the White House showed the heads of state participating in the virtual climate summit on Thursday.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times

Beyond the big two of the United States and China, here’s an overview of what some American allies and adversaries have said so far at President Biden’s virtual climate summit with world leaders on Thursday.

·         Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that Canada would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, a step up from its previous target of a 30 percent reduction in the same time frame. This is a significant increase in ambition for an economy that is still highly dependent on oil extraction, and a sign that Mr. Biden’s decision to increase the United States’ target is having an influence on his closest allies.

·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India reiterated his country’s promise to install 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030, but made no new commitments. He argued that India’s per capita emissions were far smaller than those of other major emitters and said, “We, in India, are doing our part.”

·         Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan would cut emissions 46 percent below 2013 levels by the end of the decade, a significant show of solidarity with the United States.

·         President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the world’s fourth largest greenhouse gas polluter, made only a vague pledge to “significantly reduce the net accumulated emissions in our country by 2050.” He highlighted a carbon pricing pilot program that he said would allow the Sakhalin region to become carbon neutral by 2025, but he said nothing about construction of the Nord Stream 2, a major natural gas pipeline that is opposed by both climate advocates and United States national security advisers.

·         President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030, a promise that was met with extreme skepticism by those in the environmental community who have seen the destruction of the Amazon skyrocket under his watch. Mr. Bolsonaro also vowed that Brazil would become carbon neutral by 2050, a decade earlier than it had previously said it would. Ending deforestation by 2030, he claimed, would cut Brazil’s emissions 50 percent.

Coral Davenport, Lisa Friedman and Somini Sengupta contributed reporting.

— Maggie Astor

For more information please visit the following link:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/22/us/biden-earth-day-climate-summit

My two grandsons, Bodhi and Kai enjoyed to be in the garden. That make me very happy. I wish children all over the world would be able to enjoy nature.  Parents and other adults should cultivate and take care of nature for younger generations to have a chance to appreciate a beautiful and peaceful world.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Saturday, April 24, 2021

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