APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting kicks off in San Francisco with focus on sustainable future

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting kicked off in San Francisco, the United States, on Thursday with an aim to build a more interconnected, innovative, and inclusive APEC region.

The meeting, held in Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, was chaired by U.S. President Joe Biden.

"Our world stands at an inflection point where the decisions we make now going to determine the course of the world, not just a few of our countries, for the next several decades of consequence," Biden said in his opening remarks.

"Every economy has seen signs of what is to come if we don't act," he said, citing droughts, floods, seas rising, temperatures rising and more unpredictable weather patterns.

"We're responsible for the largest share of global emissions, so we must also bear responsibility for the solutions while we still have time to change course," Biden noted.

He said climate security, energy security and food security are all related.

Only by working together, can countries make real progress and meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Biden said.

This year, the world is on track to meet to climate finance pledge "that we made under the Paris Agreement of 100 billion U.S. dollars collectively," Biden said.

As part of the Paris Agreement, the world's wealthier countries reaffirmed their commitment to mobilize at least 100 billion U.S. dollars of climate financing annually to help developing countries to adapt to climate change, invest in renewable energies and achieve low-carbon development. But getting there is a work in progress.

Biden called on APEC economies to take strong national actions to address climate change.

"With the right commitments from every economy here, we can limit warming, we can build new energy futures and leave no one behind," Biden said.

The leaders' meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, gathered political and business leaders from 21 APEC member economies.

The meeting is the highlight of the APEC Leaders' Week, held in San Francisco from Nov. 11 to 17 with the theme of "Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All."

During the week, leaders, ministers and officials held discussions on APEC's work across a wide range of policy areas including trade and investment facilitation, the digital economy, clean energy and climate, health, gender equity and equality as well as anti-corruption and food security.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first-ever leaders' meeting that took place in 1993, when then host country -- the United States -- upgraded the APEC meeting mechanism from the ministerial level to the level of an informal leaders' meeting.