Busy schedule getting to you, Sleepy Joe? Biden appears to fall asleep while listening to first speakers at COP26 after packed weekend meeting the Pope and the G20 in Rome
President Biden's whirlwind European tour appears to be catching up with him, as the 78-year-old was caught resting his eyes during the opening remarks of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday.
The president looked to be dozing off as one speaker underscored the importance of taking action to save the climate. He opened his eyes and appeared to liven up when an aide walked up to him to chat.
Biden then sat forward and rubbed his eyes as Italy's prime minister took the stage.
Later on, Biden himself took the stage as to deliver his own warning on the impending doom of climate change.
'Climate change is already ravaging the world,' he told a crowd at the United Nations climate summit. 'It's not hypothetical.'
The president called climate change 'the existential threat to human existence as we know it.'
'This is a decisive decade in which we have an opportunity to prove ourselves,' Biden continued. 'We can keep the goal of limiting global warming to just 1.5° C if we come together.'
'We're still falling short. There's no more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue amongst ourselves. This is a challenge of our collective lifetimes,' he continued. 'Glasgow must be the kick-off of a decade of ambition & innovation to preserve our shared future.'
The president took a swing at Donald Trump in a separate speech at the conference. 'I shouldn't apologize but I do apologize,' Biden said of Trump taking the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Biden concluded his speech: 'God bless you all and may God save the planet.'
Speakers were only allowed three minutes, but Biden's remarks went far beyond the allotment, coming in at over 11 minutes.
A digital countdown from three minutes began at the start of the speech, and after each minute a speaker went beyond the time a chime sounded. The chime went off eight times during Biden's remarks.
Boris Johnson has warned Cop26 delegates that the longer it takes to tackle climate change, the higher the cost will be when a 'catastrophe' forces world leaders to act.
Johnson said the world was in the same position as James Bond as he tries to deactivate a doomsday device in his films. But he said: 'The tragedy is this is not a movie and the doomsday device is real.'
Coining a phrase from activist Greta Thunberg, he warned that the promises to limit global temperature rises under the Paris Agreement would be 'nothing but blah blah blah' and the world's anger would be uncontainable unless Cop26 was the moment they got real about climate change.
President Biden's whirlwind European tour appears to be catching up with him, as the 78-year-old was caught resting his eyes during the opening remarks of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow
The president looked to be dozing off as one speaker underscored the importance of taking action to save the climate
He opened his eyes and appeared to liven up when an aide walked up to him to chat
Thunberg recently chastised Britain and other nations for 'empty words and promises', accusing them of delivering too much 'blah blah blah' instead of offering any real action.
Thunberg spoke at a climate demonstration nearby as the summit was taking place.
'No more blah blah blah, no more whatever the f*** they are doing inside there,' she said at Festival Park, Glasgow on Monday.
'Inside Cop, there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously, pretending to take the present seriously. Change is not going to come from inside there, that is not leadership - this is leadership... We say no more blah blah blah, no more exploitation of people and the planet.'
Biden touched down in Scotland on Monday morning before promptly climbing into his huge motorcade to travel to a climate summit where he plans to tout American leadership on tackling carbon emissions, after spending the weekend in Rome meeting with Pope Francis and Italian leaders and attending the G2-.
After making the short hop from Rome in Air Force One - a modified 747 - his gas-guzzling convoy of more than 20 vehicles will raise fresh criticisms of hypocrisy.
At the G20 in Rome he used an 85-vehicle convoy, including vans for officials, secret service and journalists, as well as ambulances and communications systems.
He was greeted warmly by Boris Johnson, British prime minister, and U.S. Secretary General Antonio Guterres when he arrived at the conference center. The leaders swapped elbow bumps and warm smiles.
The presidents of key polluters Russia and China are not attending the talks and India has said it will not be changing its reliance on coal any time soon.
Biden will today release a detailed plan to half carbon emissions by the end of the decade, compared with 2005 levels.
And he plans to launch a scheme to raise $3 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
His national security adviser used the proposals to throw down a challenge to other nations.
'So the US is stepping up to do its part key,' said Jake Sullivan aboard Air Force One en route to Edinburgh.
'US allies Japan, Korea, the European Union, Canada, others are stepping up to do their part.
'And now the question is: Will some of the remaining countries step up to do theirs?'
Biden wipes his nose during his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) listens to President Biden as they attend the climate conference
Biden meets with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during COP26
Climate envoy John Kerry leans in to speak to Biden during the opening stages of the COP26 summit in Glasgow
President Biden's motorcade burned through the Central Belt of Scotland from Edinburgh Airport to Glasgow on Monday
It comprised more than 20 vehicles - plus police outriders - but was modest compared with the 85 vehicles he used in Rome
Biden's six-day trip to Europe will release an estimated two million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
President Biden touched down at Edinburgh Airport on Monday morning ahead of arriving at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, after making the short hop from Rome, Italy
Air Force landed in Scotland on Monday morning. Biden has been criticized for the amount of carbon emitted by his fleet of aircraft and cars during his Europe trip
Environmental campaigners with 'big heads' of key world leaders, including Biden, dressed in kilts gathered in Glasgow, marking the start of the Cop26 summit in the city on Monday
Biden arrived from a G20 summit in Rome where he touted the power of America 'showing up.'
'What we've seen again here in Rome is what I think is the power of America showing up and working with our allies and partners to make progress in issues that matter to all of us,' he said, adding that allies wanted 'American leadership' to get things done.
Biden again relied on a cheat sheet of 'pre-approved' reporters as he held a press conference at the conclusion of the G20 summit in Rome on Sunday.
As he opened up the floor to questions, at the start of the the press conference, the president seemed to be using a pre-ordained list of correspondents to call on.
'And now I'm happy to take some questions. And I'm told I should start with AP, Zeke Miller,' Biden said.
The preferred pecking order for the administration seems to be The Associated Press, The Washington Post, NBC News, Reuters and Bloomberg News.
Biden claimed other leaders sought him out as he fended off a question about whether he could provide leadership amid falling poll numbers at home.
'The United States of America is the most critical part of this entire agenda, and we did it,' Biden said.
However, skeptics say few concrete measures were agreed on how to keep the world to temperature rises of less than 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels - a target set at the Paris climate summit in 2015.
And Biden lost key clean energy pledges from his Build Back Better agenda in recent weeks as the price for winning over opponents in his own party to its huge $3.5 trillion cost.
The Supreme Court could yet strip his administration of more powers to limit emissions.
Then there is the awkward matter of his travel arrangements.
His trip to Europe is estimated to release 2.2 million pounds of carbon.
The gigantic carbon footprint is comprised of 2.16 million pounds of carbon dioxide generated by the four large planes that comprise his airborne entourage on the trip to Italy and Scotland, where the president will speak at the COP26 summit on change in Glasgow, with the remainder emitted by Biden's cars.
His fleet is comprised of the heavily modified Boeing 747 he travels on, known as Air Force One when the president is on board, an identical decoy, and two huge C-17 Globemaster planes to carry his battalion of cars and helicopters.
But expect to hear more about American leadership, Biden's climate adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters.
'This is a message you're going to see from the president over the next two days and from dozens of cabinet officials who will be in Glasgow over the next two weeks: the United States is back at the table, we're back, hoping to rally the world to tackle the climate crisis,' he said.
She said the U.S. would release a plan to show it can half U.S. carbon emissions by 2023 from 2005 levels en route to its net-zero target by 2050.
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