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- President Biden apologized for the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords.
- "I guess I shouldn't apologize, but I do apologize," he said of the 2017 American withdrawal from Paris.
- Biden also announced a series of new commitments on the climate crisis.
President Joe Biden apologized on Monday for the Trump administration's 2017 withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, saying that it put the United States "behind the 8-ball a little bit."
Biden made the remarks during a meeting on "action and solidarity" with world leaders at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland.
"I guess I shouldn't apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States, under the last administration, pulled out of the Paris accords," Biden said. "And put us sort of behind the 8-ball a little bit."
The session took place following Biden's marquee speech at the climate conference, where he urged developed nations to do more to assist developing nations in combating climate change.
"We're standing at an inflection point in world history," Biden declared during his speech, calling combating climate change both a "moral imperative" and an "economic imperative."
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To that end, the White House launched on Monday the "President's Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience" (PREPARE), a "whole-of-government initiative" to combat the global climate crisis that aims to have $3 billion in US government funding by fiscal year 2024.
The White House also touted the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better framework released last Thursday, as well the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Both could see votes in the House of Representatives this week.
This is a developing story, check back for further updates.