Empty chairs, empty heads...

The empty chairs at the U.N. climate summit

By JASON PLAUTZ

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres made one demand of world leaders in the run-up to today’s special climate summit in New York: Bring new and credible plans for averting the worst outcomes of a warming planet, or stay home.

Guterres didn’t sugarcoat the stakes as he opened the conference. “Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” he said.

But leaders of some of the world’s biggest spewers of heat-trapping industrial emissions weren’t there to hear the warnings, including President Joe Biden and heads of government from China, Russia, France and Great Britain, writes Sara Schonhardt.

Biden had outlined the case for increasing global ambitions to cut carbon dioxide emissions in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. But Biden’s absence at today’s summit — attributed to his busy schedule — raised questions about the capacity of industrialized nations to ratchet up their climate efforts.

Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, attended today’s summit in his absence. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom took his turn. “This climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis,” he told the room of leaders hand-picked to attend.

In the room

Guterres is calling for a Climate Solidarity Pact that would call on major polluters to make “extra efforts to cut emissions” and assist emerging economies, as well as an Acceleration Agenda to speed up the progress in developing countries toward meeting net zero.

Germany and the European Union touted their contributions to a $100 billion pledge to help developing countries address climate change. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is also working on building a coalition of countries that would triple renewable energy and double annual energy savings by 2030, to be announced at U.N. climate talks later this year.

Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, the prime minister of Samoa, speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States, underscored the need for money and technical help from the developed world.

Sunak’s splitscreen

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, sucked some of the air out of the room by announcing his country’s intention to delay a ban on new gasoline and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035 and to ease off a plan to replace gas boilers with electric heat pumps.

Sunak, speaking at a press conference in London, called the decision a “more pragmatic and realistic approach to net zero” and said he was “unequivocal that we will meet our international agreements.”

But the split screen with the climate conference was glaring amid a frank discussion about the threats of rising emissions due to burning so much oil, natural gas and coal.

“We are in the final stages of what actions are needed to preserve this planet,” said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. “And regrettably, I’m not sure that everyone is getting it.