WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has convened a global climate summit — by livestream from around the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden started it out Thursday with an ambitious U.S. pledge to cut by at least one-half the climate-wrecking coal and petroleum fumes that America is pumping out. He is hoping the commitment, along with similar ones from allies, will spur China and others to move faster on their own climate efforts. The summit marks the U.S. return to international emissions-cutting efforts after four years of withdrawal under President Donald Trump. Biden calls it “a moment of peril but a moment of opportunity.” The summit saw leaders of China and Russia put aside disputes with the U.S. to pledge action.

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In this Jan. 15, 2021 file photo, President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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