(CNET) – General Motors and Ford joined over 400 businesses on Wednesday calling on President Joe Biden to set an ambitious emissions target for the US ahead of a planned climate summit. Ahead of the summit’s start on Thursday, the White House made the president’s goal official: 52% emissions reductions by 2030 below 2005 levels.
The letter, whose signatories account for more than $4 trillion in annual revenue, urged Biden to cut the country’s emissions by “at least 50%” below 2005 levels come 2030. The final figure goes slightly above the businesses’ calls. GM and Ford’s signing on is, frankly, a huge deal considering tailpipe emissions are a sizable contributing factor to climate change.
As the U.S. works to reduce emissions by 50%, the companies signaled Biden should also put the country on a path toward carbon neutrality by 2050. “To restore the standing of the US as a global leader, we need to address the climate crisis at the pace and scale it demands,” the open letter states. “Specifically, the US must adopt an emissions reduction target that will place the country on a credible pathway to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.”
