A senior Biden administration official told reporters on Saturday that at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, next week, the United States hopes to lock in ‘G20 commitment to end overseas financing of coal’ to tackle the climate crisis.
“What we really hope to lock in is a G20 commitment to end overseas financing of coal,” the official said. “We would like to see some positive language around decarbonizing … power sector”
The official added that the U.S. would also like to see “more countries sign up to the global methane pledge,” adding that a few elements about climate in the communiqué “are still being negotiated.”
The official said the activities on Sunday would be “about help build momentum” before COP 26 in Glasgow.”
The senior administration official added that there was already an agreement on the “corporate minimum tax.”
The official added that President Biden will hold a bilateral meeting “tomorrow morning” with president Erdogan of Turkey. Erdogan had threatened recently to expel diplomats from Turkey.
“I’m not actually even sure we would have had the meeting if he had gone ahead and expelled,” the official said, adding that “certainly the President will indicate that we need to find a way to avoid crises like that one going forward.”
“Precipitous action is not going to benefit the US Turkey partnership and alliance,” added the official who was not authorized to discuss such issues publicly.
The official said issues to be covered during the bilateral will include Syria, Libya, Turkey’s desire for various defense systems including the s400 system and the country’s ambition to acquire F16s.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.