Biden will aim to cut US emissions in half by 2030: source

President Biden will announce a goal of cutting U.S. emissions in half by the year 2030, a person familiar confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. 

Biden is expected to announce the updated target under the Paris climate agreement in conjunction with both Earth Day and a climate summit that will feature 40 heads of state. 

The announcement follows Biden’s return to the agreement, under which countries are expected to periodically update their interim targets. 

The goal, called a Nationally Determined Contribution, was first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday. 

The Obama administration had aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025 when compared to 2005 levels.

The administration has said that it will raise ambition with its own target and push other countries to do the same. An administration official told reporters Wednesday that they may expect countries to take action at the meeting, including making announcements and indicating the next steps that they’ll take to combat climate change. 

A number of environmental groups, businesses and foreign leaders have called for the U.S. to cut its emissions by at least half by 2030. 

Nevertheless, some progressive groups, including those that had been pushing for a 70 percent reduction by 2030, reacted with disappointment at the news. 

“While many will applaud the President’s commitment to cut U.S. emissions by at least half by 2030, we have a responsibility to tell the truth: it is nowhere near enough,” Sunrise Movement Political Director Evan Weber said in a statement. “If the US does not achieve much, much more by the end of this decade, it will be a death sentence for our generation and the billions of people at the frontlines of the climate crisis.”

Biden will meet with world leaders on Thursday as part of a climate summit, where he and other administration officials are expected to broadly outline their climate goals for the coming years. Other heads of states are likely to offer similarly ambitious goals.

The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced it would aim to slash its carbon emissions by 78 percent by the year 2035.