PTI Beijing

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that the world should stay focused on delivering the climate goals despite the US opposition as he announced his country’s new target to cut emissions by 7-10% by 2035.

In a video address to the UN Climate Summit in New York, Xi said China will increase the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to over 30%, expand installed capacity of wind and solar power to over six times the 2020 levels, scale up the total forest stock volume to over 24 billion cubic metres and make new energy vehicles the mainstream in the sales of new vehicles.

Xi’s comments followed US President Trump’s address to the UNGA two days ago, during which he decried climate change, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, and refuted the use of renewable energy.

Lula-Trump meet sparks chemistry

Brazil’s president Lula said he was as surprised as his US counterpart Trump when they met by chance and “there was some chemistry”, given the deteriorating relations between the two countries.

He said their first-ever en­counter made him “very ha­ppy” and “optimistic” about the possibility of Brazil and the US holding a meeting as soon as possible and doing away with the “bad feeling” in bilateral ties. Trump administration has slapped 50% tariffs on many of Brazil's exports to the US over the arrest and conviction of its former president Bolsonaro for a coup bid.

EAM: World requires global workforce

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said today’s changing world requires a global workforce. Addressing the event ‘At the Heart of Development: Aid, Trade, and Technology’ hosted by the Observer Research Foundation on the margins of the UNGA session, Jaishankar called for the creation of a more acceptable, contemporary, efficient model of a global workforce. 

“Where that global workforce is to be housed and located may be a matter of a political debate. But there's no getting away. If you look at demand, you look at demographics, demands cannot be met in many countries purely out of national demographics.” 

“It is a reality. You cannot run away from this reality. So how do we create a more acceptable, contemporary, efficient model of a global workforce, which is then located in a distributed, global workplace? I think this is a very big question today which the international economy has to address,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, speaking over video after US revoked his visa, told leaders his people “reject” the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and pledged the militant group would have no role in governing Gaza after war ends and must hand over its weapons.