Sharm El-Sheikh - (AFP) - US President Joe Biden urged the countries of the world to make more efforts to avoid the catastrophe of climate warming, stressing that his country is on the "right track" to fulfill its pledges to reduce carbon emissions.

"The climate crisis is related to human security, economic security, national security, and life on the planet," Biden said in a speech to the annual United Nations Climate Conference (COP 27) in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea.

He stressed that the United States is on the "right track" to achieve its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

In his speech, the US President indicated that the United States approved an investment plan worth $369 billion to make the US economy more environmentally friendly, considering that it serves as an example for other countries.

While activists praised the funds allocated by the United States in the field of renewable energy, Washington was criticized for failing to implement its pledges to financially assist developing countries in their energy transition and to strengthen their resistance to natural disasters exacerbated by climate warming.

Biden stressed, "To change the emissions curve once and for all, all countries must do more. During this gathering, we must renew and raise our climate ambitions," stressing that the United States is doing what it has to do in this struggle to limit climate warming.

Biden added, "The United States has moved, and everyone must move. This is the duty and responsibility of world leaders. Countries that are able to help must support developing countries so that they can take decisive decisions on the climate level, from facilitating the energy transition in them and promoting the path of prosperity in line with our climate imperatives."

Activists in the audience interrupted his 22-minute speech with shouts and tried to hold up a banner protesting fossil fuels.

They were taken out of the hall.

New research has shown that it will be extremely difficult to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, which would require cutting emissions by nearly half by 2030.

The study, the results of which were published Friday in the journal Earth System Science Data, concluded that carbon dioxide emissions are on the way to rise by 1% in 2022, reaching a record level.

Biden was absent from the summit of state and government leaders at the conference at the beginning of the week, due to his preoccupation with the US elections, which raised questions about the repercussions of their possible results on US climate policy.

Before the speech, Biden met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on the sidelines of COP27, where he raised the issue of human rights in the country, while the health of the most prominent prisoner of conscience in the country, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, is concerned after he began a hunger strike seven months ago.

The lightning visit to Egypt marks the beginning of a week-long tour during which Biden will participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cambodia over the weekend, before moving to Indonesia to attend the G20 summit.

In his speech, Biden touched on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stressing that it "highlighted the urgent need to stop the world's dependence on fossil fuels."

Biden said the dispute gave new impetus to replacing oil and gas with renewable energy sources. Many Western European countries were dependent on Russian gas before the invasion.

However, the US president did not address in his speech an issue dominating the negotiations at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, namely calls for the United States and other rich polluting countries to pay compensation to developing countries for damages caused by natural disasters.

Mohamed Adow, founder of the think tank "Power Shift Africa," said the United States is a "historical pollutant," stressing that it stands as an obstacle to establishing a "loss and damage" mechanism.

Washington resisted this idea in the past, but agreed to discuss it during the current climate conference.

German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said Biden's presence at COP27 was an "excellent gesture".

"I think this reassures countries and peoples that the United States is taking this issue very seriously and at the highest levels, and we need that," she told reporters.

US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry offered a partnership between the private and public sectors aimed at supporting the transition to renewable energy sources in developing countries based on a system of carbon credits, but activists criticized this program.

On Friday, the White House announced plans to require federal contractors to set targets to cut their emissions in line with the Paris agreement.

The plans also aim to boost efforts to cut methane emissions, a major contributor to global warming, through a program that requires companies to act on leaks detected by "trustworthy" third parties.

Biden pledged to contribute $11.4 billion to an annual mechanism to provide $100 billion from rich countries to developing countries to transition to renewable energy sources and strengthen their resistance to climate change.

However, time is running out for the Democrats to approve this amount in Congress, as it appears that the Republicans will control the House of Representatives as of January in light of the results of the mid-term elections this week.