Biden to urge action at U.N. climate summit but without legislative victory back home

When President Biden addresses world leaders Monday at the United Nations' global climate summit, he will promise action to a room full of heads of government who have come to Scotland with low expectations, despite scientists' warning that the world is dangerously overheating.

Congress' failure to pass significant climate legislation before the summit got underway has left Biden in a weaker negotiating position than the White House had hoped. Major emitters like China, India and Russia have balked at setting more ambitious goals to slash carbon emissions. And a meeting of the Group of 20 in Rome ended Sunday with an agreement that critics said fell far short of meaningful action to curb rising temperatures.

Speaking Friday before the summit began, António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, cautioned: "Let's be clear — there is a serious risk that Glasgow will not deliver."

If all goes better than the event's organizers and international leaders expect, the summit in Glasgow could set the course for global action to combat climate change.

The event is intended to be an update to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, when 195 international leaders committed to holding rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Beyond that threshold, scientists say heat waves, floods, crop failures and wildfires will become increasingly common and deadly.

Leaders were meant to come to the summit with new, more ambitious climate targets that change the world's current trajectory, which is heading toward roughly 3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100.

Wealthy countries are also facing pressure from developing nations to fulfill a promise they made back in 2009, when the United States and others agreed that by 2020, they would provide $100 billion a year to help poor countries reduce their carbon emissions, adopt cleaner sources of fuel and adapt to the effects of climate change. So far, the wealthy countries have fallen short, and the latest estimate suggests they might not come up with the full amount until 2023.

For the next two days, Glasgow will become a speaker's circuit of global leaders. Biden is scheduled to make a speech Monday afternoon in Scotland.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as the president flew from Rome to Scotland on Monday morning, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden's speech will be a "clarion call."

"It will be a very strong statement of his personal commitment, of our country's commitment, not just to do our part but to help lead the world in mobilizing and catalyzing the action necessary to achieve our goals," Sullivan said.

Once Biden and the other heads of government leave Tuesday, diplomats and delegates will set to work on negotiations on a hoped-for agreement that lays out how the world will limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. They will also try to settle disputes over financial assistance and attempt to finalize a set of rules for how countries report and claim credit for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

What they accomplish, or don't, over the 12-day conference will be a sign of whether the unity and common resolve on display in Paris can be revived.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.