Now comes the hard part.
President Joe Biden’s summit meeting on climate change ended Friday with the United States promising to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and to help other countries do the same. But the real test for the United States will be Washington's ability to steer the rest of the world toward cleaner energy fast enough to avert catastrophe.
The limits of America’s influence were clear. Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia made no new pledges to cut down on oil, gas or coal. Some countries said that they were being asked for sacrifices even though they had contributed little to the problem, and that they needed money to cope.