US President Joe Biden’s speech at the UN General Assembly
A “Point of No Return” or an “Inflection Point?
The United States intends to provide developing countries with $100 billion to overcome the consequences of global climate change, and will commit $10 billion to end hunger around the world.
The next decade will determine the future of the world, said US President Joe Biden during his speech at the UN General Assembly. He spoke for the first time as head of state at the UN General Assembly, in New York on Tuesday, September 21.
The President pledged to work with Congress and private companies to double the US’ assistance to developing countries in overcoming the consequences of global climate change. This would make the United States a pioneer in public funding for climate programs, as part of their historical responsibility for global warming.
Mr. Biden is putting efforts towards establishing U.S. leadership in saving the planet from an impending climate apocalypse. He stated that climate change is borderless, and the US’ “success is bound up in others succeeding as well,” and thus, “we must work together as never before.”
The American leader proclaimed “a new era of relentless diplomacy.” The President also made it clear, that his Administration’s policies will be fundamentally different from Donald Trump’s “America first” style of diplomacy, shifting towards multilateralism. However, there is an impression that the Biden administration intends to use the climate crisis as an opportunity to reaffirm the primacy of US power in international politics. It is worth mentioning that the achievement of the democratic values is not equal to US leadership.
One day before this speech, in the “Remarks by President Biden and United Nations Secretary-General Guterres Before Bilateral Meeting” he emphasized that:
“The strong partnership between the United States and the U.N. is based on common values and principles.”
Mr. Biden referred to the organization’s charter, which, according to him, he had specially re-read before the session, and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He recalled that the United States returned to the World Health Organization, rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, said that next year Washington expects to restore its membership in the UN Human Rights Council, and proposed to establish a new Council on global threats to human health.
“Will we meet the threat of challenging climate — the challenging climate we’re all feeling already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather? Or will we suffer the merciless march of ever-worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heatwaves and rising seas?
Will we affirm and uphold the human dignity and human rights under which nations in common cause, more than seven decades ago, formed this institution?
Will we apply and strengthen the core tenets of the international system, including the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as we seek to shape the emergence of new technologies and deter new threats?
Or will we allow those universal principles to be trampled and twisted in the pursuit of naked political power?”
References:
Agarwal, Ayushi. “Full Transcript: Biden Addresses 76Th UN General Assembly”. ABC News, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-transcript-biden-addresses-76th-general-assembly/story?id=80146170.
Friman, Mathias. “Historical Responsibility in the UNFCCC.” 2007, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Historical-Responsibility-in-the-UNFCCC-Friman/2d92a0823ef78c6171098b242c317e1970790afc
The White House. “Remarks By President Biden And United Nations Secretary-General Guterres Before Bilateral Meeting | The White House”. 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/20/remarks-by-president-biden-and-united-nations-secretary-general-guterres-before-bilateral-meeting/.
