Greta Thunberg in climate call to young people: ‘No limits to what we can accomplish’ – live

John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, said Donald Trump’s policies “destroyed” America’s credibility on the world stage when it comes to addressing climate change.

The former secretary of state noted that today, which is Earth Day, marks five years since he signed the Paris climate agreement in New York, with his granddaughter on his knee.

“Regrettably, without any facts, without any science, without any rationale that would be considered reasonable, the former president decided to pull out,” Kerry said.

The senior presidential adviser pledged that Biden would take active steps to confront climate change and to rebuild America’s credibility with its foreign allies.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters.

Psaki is joined today by John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, and Gina McCarthy, the president’s national climate adviser.

The briefing comes as Biden kicks off a two-day virtual climate summit with dozens of world leaders at the White House.

Making a pitch for the president’s $2tn infrastructure plan, McCarthy said the proposal would help the US to “grow our economy and to reduce our emissions”.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Greta Thunberg testified at a House subcommittee hearing on the need to end federal subsidies for fossil fuels. The 18-year-old climate activist implored lawmakers to “listen to and act on the science and to use your common sense”. “We, the young people, are the ones who are going to write about you in the history books,” Thunberg said. “So my advice for you is to choose wisely.”
• Joe Biden announced a goal to cut US greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The president laid out the new goal in his introductory remarks at the start of a two-day virtual climate summit with dozens of world leaders. “No nation can solve this crisis on our own,” Biden said. “All of us, all of us, and particularly those of us who represent the world’s largest economies, have to step up.”
• The House passed a bill to make the District of Columbia the 51st US state. The vote of 216 to 208 fell exactly along party lines. The DC statehood bill now heads to the Senate, where Democrats do not currently have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster of the legislation.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer applauded the House’s passage of a bill to make the District of Columbia the 51st US state.

“This is about democracy. It’s about self-government. It’s about voting rights,” the Democratic leader said on Twitter.

But Schumer did not offer a specific timeline on when the Senate may vote on the bill, instead simply saying senators are “working to make #DCStatehood a reality”.

As of now, Democrats do not have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster of the legislation. They would need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to support the bill in order to break a filibuster.

The House has passed the bill to make the District of Columbia the 51st US state, in a vote of 216 to 208.

The vote fell exactly along party lines, as expected, with all House Democrats supporting the bill and securing its passage.

The bill now heads to the evenly divided Senate, where it faces an uphill climb due to Republicans’ ability to filibuster the legislation. Republicans have criticized the proposal as a Democratic “power grab”.

However, the bill’s passage in the House and the possibility of a Senate vote still represent progress for those who have been fighting for DC statehood for decades.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the delegate who represents DC in the House, has been advocating for statehood since she arrived in Congress in the 1990’s. She celebrated today’s House vote as a step toward addressing the injustice of taxation without representation for DC residents.

“This Congress, with Democrats controlling the House, the Senate and the White House, DC statehood is within reach for the first time in history,” Norton said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized the importance of passing the DC statehood bill during her weekly press conference this morning.

The Democratic speaker said DC statehood is “in her DNA,” noting her father served as the chair of the District of Columbia appropriations subcommittee.

Pelosi shared a photo of her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr, with Eleanor Roosevelt during his first hearing as chairman of the DC appropriations subcommittee.

The speaker noted her father was known as “the unofficial mayor of Washington” because of the amount of power he held over DC as the subcommittee chairman.

“He did not support that. He was all for home rule and what would come after that,” Pelosi said.

The House oversight subcommittee on environment is currently taking a short break in its hearing on fossil fuel subsidies to address some technical difficulties.

Meanwhile, the House has started voting on the bill to make DC the 51st US state, which is expected to pass.

The blog will have more updates on the hearing and the vote coming up, so stay tuned.

Greta Thunberg emphasized that her generation will take action to confront climate change if those currently in power refuse to do so.

The 18-year-old activist said lawmakers will have to answer to their children if they do not take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as by ending federal subsidies for fossil fuels.

“Unlike you, my generation will not give up without a fight,” Thunberg said. “And to be honest, I don’t believe for a second that you will actually do this.”

She added, “We, the young people, are the ones who are going to write about you in the history books. We are the ones who get to decide how you will be remembered. So my advice for you is to choose wisely.”

Greta Thunberg also warned the House members of the oversight subcommittee that they will not always be able to escape scrutiny for the US climate change response.

“How long do you honestly believe that people in power like you will get away with it?” the climate activist said in her opening remarks to the subcommittee.

“How long do you think you can continue to ignore the climate crisis, the global aspect of equity and historic emissions, without being held accountable?”

Thunberg added, “You get away with it now, but sooner or later people are going to realize what you have been doing all this time.”