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President Joe Biden convened world leaders for a two-day virtual climate summit on Thursday to send a message that the U.S. is back and ready to lead. Many of the 40 heads of state who participated had their own message for America: Prove it.

Biden opened the event by promising to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below the 2005 levels by 2030, a clear demonstration that climate is at the center of his agenda. That he did so in front of presidents, prime ministers, and a king shows the White House has the influence to draw world leaders together.

The summit was also meant to demonstrate a vast difference with former President Donald Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement and systematically rejected the threat of climate change. Perhaps the biggest departure came when Biden reappeared to promise a doubling of the U.S. spending towards international climate goals. Annual spending will rise to $5.7 billion by 2024—assuming he can get Congress to go along. Even that, however, may not have been enough to change minds.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, April 22.

Photographer: Al Drago/The New York Times

Here are the three big takeaways from Day One of the two-day event.

1. Biden didn't get all he hoped for

In the lead-up to the summit, administration officials suggested that their metric of its success would be how many new pledges to reduce greenhouse gases the event inspired. Against that bar, the summit didn't shine.

Despite aggressive pre-summit diplomacy by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, only two U.S. allies unveiled new plans to boost previous pledges. Kerry acknowledged that expectations were high in a midday press conference, and he classified modest gains as big wins. Twenty of the world's top polluters had upped their commitments, he said, while appearing to define "commitment" loosely. Kerry cited India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to participate in a new clean energy partnership, for instance, while overlooking that just two weeks ago the climate envoy had traveled to India hoping to persuade Modi to set a net-zero target.

Without a major breakthrough, the Earth Day gathering becomes a step towards the all-important United Nations climate conference scheduled for November in the U.K. "The next six months of diplomacy will be absolutely critical to the capacity to make Glasgow what it needs to be," Kerry said. "I do believe Glasgow remains our last, best hope to be able to coalesce the world in the right direction."

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2. Climate finance was a major sore point

If polluting nations underproduced on climate pledges, wealthy countries may have underwhelmed on financial promises, and a vocal group of nations used Thursday's proceedings to demand more money to fund the energy transition.

In a briefing after remarks by China's President Xi Jinping, the country's vice minister of foreign affairs, Ma Zhaoxu, took a swipe at the U.S. on climate finance. Advanced economies must "take concrete steps to help developing countries raise their capabilities in tackling climate change," he said, and "avoid setting green trade barriers."

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, meanwhile, advanced his country's previous position that the country's climate efforts—including a pledge to end illegal deforestation by 2030—should be explicitly tied to financial assistance from wealthier nations. (His remarks were greeted cynically by many rainforest observers. "Bolsonaro cannot be trusted," said Leila Salazar-Lopez, executive director of the nonprofit Amazon Watch, in a statement on the speech. "Any agreement with Brazil should be led by civil society and Indigenous and traditional peoples, not Bolsonaro.")

3. America's new emissions commitment got very mixed reviews

The summit ended months of speculation, going back to the 2020 presidential campaign, over how Biden would bring the U.S. back into the international fold. The ultimate answer was a huge leap compared to the past four years of U.S. climate policy, but only a modest step on the scale of global action. The many climate groups to express disappointment included the activist collective Extinction Rebellion, which dumped wheel-barrows full of cow manure in front of the White House.

A 50% cut below 2005 levels by the end of the decade may not even be compatible with the Paris Agreement, according to an analysis published by Climate Action Tracker. The independent research group said that "an emissions reduction target of 57% to 63% below 2005 levels by 2030 would be consistent with" preventing the worst consequences of climate change, opening up a potential gap with Biden's signature goal.

Not everyone came away disappointed in the U.S. effort. Cherelle Blazer, senior director of international climate policy at the Sierra Club, said that the lack of major new commitments today didn't worry her. "If raising ambition is what they wanted, then I think that's what they did."

Jake Schmidt, senior director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's international climate program, bestowed the summit with measured praise. "I'd give it a solid B," he said.

Eric Roston and Leslie Kaufman write the Climate Report newsletter about the impact of global warming.

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