Biden's remarkable success on climate

By every standard, President Joe Biden's climate change summit was a remarkable success. With great diplomatic dexterity, Biden and climate envoy John Kerry assembled world leaders representing 82% of world carbon emissions, 73% of the world population and 86% of world economic output to commit to bold climate action.

Biden deftly used the occasion to set the US economy on the path of bold decarbonization by 2030. And all of this was accomplished by videoconference, a daily act for schoolchildren and office workers, yet a much-needed breakthrough for a gathering of world leaders.

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Donald Trump called climate change “a Chinese hoax” and said global emissions goals would be “very hard on our business.” But when the former president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord in 2017, there was no celebrating in the C-suite.

Instead, Corporate America went where the federal government wouldn’t, with companies issuing their own Paris-aligned pledges even without pressure from regulators. The We Are Still In campaign — hundreds of corporate leaders, nonprofits and cities — was born and had an outsized presence at climate meetings that year in Bonn, where several companies committed to targets for cutting emissions.

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