Buttigieg and 12 Other Biden Cabinet Officials to Attend U.N. Climate Summit as Supply Chain Crisis Continues

Thirteen members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet are heading to Glasgow, Scotland, for the United Nation’s climate summit later this month, while the nation remains in the midst of a migrant crisis at the southern border and a supply chain crisis at U.S. ports. The climate summit attendees will include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who has been on parental leave for weeks after adopting two infants.

The other attendees include Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander, National Economic Council Director Brian Reese, and Biden’s climate advisors Gina McCarthy and John Kerry.

CNN wrote a glowing report about the U.S. delegation and its “show of strength at next month’s pivotal UN climate summit in Glasgow.”

 

CNN’s report continues:

“In Glasgow, the United States will showcase President Biden’s whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis,” a White House official told CNN. “They will demonstrate the strength of the entire US government working in lock-step to reduce emissions and achieve our international climate commitments — and that the countries who take decisive action on climate will reap the economic and jobs benefits of the clean energy future.”

The White House official added that US officials will encourage other countries to take decisive action to keep 1.5 degrees of global warming within reach, especially as the world is currently on a trajectory to reach 2.7 degrees of global warming without significant emissions cuts.

The big question is whether Biden will be able to go to COP with concrete commitments from the US. Much of the president’s climate agenda depends on Congress, and whether it can pass the president’s massive budget and climate bill before COP26 starts. The fate of that bill is uncertain, as negotiations between members of Biden’s own party drag on with little clarity on an end date.Some Democratic senators recently told CNN they are anxious about whether Congress will have passed critical climate investments before the international summit.

“That is a real concern,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said. “I think it’s critical that we go to Glasgow with the package of President Biden’s proposals moving forward.”

“I’m concerned about whether it gets done at all, and we can’t let that happen,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said. “America has to lead the world on this.”

On the same day that CNN broke the news about the U.S. delegation, Breitbart News reported that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has called for President Joe Biden to fire Kerry in an op-ed after reports emerged that he has a stake in a Chinese company that funnels money into a business blacklisted for its abuses against Uyghur Muslims in that country.

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