Biden apologizes for US withdrawal from Paris climate pact

WASHINGTON

President Joe Biden again apologized to world leaders on Friday for the US withdrawal from the landmark 2016 Paris climate agreement, emphasizing that his administration has worked to reinstitute US leadership to fight the global phenomena.

"We immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement. We convened major climate summits and reestablished, I apologize we ever pulled out of the agreement," he said at a UN climate summit being held at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort town.

Former US President Donald Trump began the process to leave the 2016 Paris Agreement shortly after he assumed office in 2017, an action reversed by Biden who just hours after he assumed office announced that the US would return to the pact. The agreement seeks to curb global carbon emissions to curb an ongoing rise in global temperatures.

Biden acknowledged his administration's efforts to step up US efforts to lead on climate change, saying they have "delivered unprecedented progress at home" during the nearly two years in which he has been in office.

"From my first days in office, my administration has led with a bold agenda to address the climate crisis and increase energy security at home and around the world," he said at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26.

"We are proving that good climate policy is good economic policy," he added, saying US investments on climate policy will "shift the paradigm for the United States and the entire world."