| When leaders from countries including the U.S., China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia meet virtually today, it will seem for a few hours as though there's only one problem in the world: climate change. President Joe Biden kicks off his online summit on Earth Day with a focus on cutting carbon emissions. It'll be a rare oasis of consensus, with leaders lining up to give short speeches in a session titled "Raising our Climate Ambition." Yet while the environment is a truly global challenge, getting leaders together requires a tacit agreement to briefly park the long list of things they disagree on, fight about and compete over, in order to talk about how they can work together for the future health of the planet. The summit is Biden's bid to regain U.S. credibility on climate change leadership after Donald Trump pulled America out of the Paris accords. It's also an early test of his effort to conduct foreign policy by compartmentalizing relationships. Tricky issues go in one box, collective issues in another. Don't let the first bleed into the second. "If you try to put all sorts of other agendas on the same table, then I don't think we'll achieve the things we need to achieve globally," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in an interview ahead of the climate meeting, when asked about tensions with Russia or China. It's all slightly surreal, though, given Biden recently blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "killer." He's described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a "thug." Putin and Xi will show up today because it suits them. Being visible on climate issues, saying the right things, is a win-win. But it's likely to be a short respite. Once the meeting ends, leaders will go back to the business of their differences. — Rosalind Mathieson | 
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