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Summits for even more occasions

— Ahead of a U.S.-Mexico-Canada summit Thursday, the Canadian American Business Council tonight holds a State of the Relationship gala dinner in Washington featuring Justin Trudeau at The Hay-Adams hotel. Watch the speeches from 7.30 p.m. ET. CABC is promising "a very special guest giving a hot open."

— The Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore continues today, but not the World Economic Forum New Champions event in Tianjin, which was postponed due to spiking Covid caseloads.

— Here’s POLITICO’s debrief on the Biden-Xi meeting, from Phelim Kine.

NORDSTREAM — PIPELINE CERTIFICATION SUSPENDED: The German energy regulator Tuesday suspended its certification of Nord Stream 2, the undersea natural gas pipeline completed in September for transporting gas directly to Germany from Russia. The reasoning is technical: The Swiss-based operator does not have a German subsidiary, but this is nevertheless the sort of workaround Washington has been lobbying for.

The short-term impacts already include a new spike in natural gas prices. While the German agency may still approve the pipeline, which would then require EU approval before it could open, it’s clear that won’t be happening this winter.

NEW PODCAST EPISODE — WILL THE GOP GO ALONG WITH THE COP26 PACT?

The U.N.’s COP process only works when there’s a big, open tent. The Biden administration may need a similarly big, open tent to hit its ambitious emissions targets and guard American global credibility.

So what will it take to get the Republican Party inside that tent?

Global Insider spoke to two of the key players: Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), ranking member of the House Climate Committee, in this week’s podcast episode with a reality check from our climate correspondent Zack Colman. Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), leader of the Conservative Climate Caucus (watch the interview here from POLITICO’s Sustainability Summit held Tuesday).

Takeaways:

— Party branding: Curtis and Graves want to stop extremist voices from leading the party’s branding on climate change (and they’ll take swipes at the Democratic left-wing while they’re at it).

— 2021 a tipping point: Curtis said 2021 had been a “tipping point” for many Republican lawmakers and voters in accepting climate change is real and urgent.

— Tech agnostic: They’ll support emissions reduction strategies to the extent they don’t lean on ideological attachment to renewable energy (a Texas natural gas plant has delivered emissions-free electricity to the grid for the “first time anywhere in the world,” the company — Net Power — claimed Tuesday).

— Using different language to build coalitions: “You can be talking about the same damn thing, but you can talk about it different ways,” Graves said. Liberals may treat climate action as a moral crusade, while conservatives might see it as a business opportunity or cost-saving exercise.

— On the limitations of COPs: “This was the 26th COP and emissions are still going up.” (But it was the first time the GOP sent an official delegation.)

— China’s plea for time to develop: “They're spending trillions of dollars on their military and their Belt and Road Initiative. I have no sympathy for them being a developing country. They simply don't fit the criteria and they're being allowed to get a free pass,” Graves said.

— Politics: On the Biden administration’s climate plan Graves said “I think that candidly, it lacks integrity” to focus on 2050 targets “when the administration cannot even provide a technological roadmap on how you're going to get there.” Rollout of infrastructure bill spending will also be a chance to hobble the political future of Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary.

— Pain at the pump: Just because Republicans can now bring themselves to speak about climate action, it doesn’t mean high gas prices will stop being an easy Republican midterm election attack line, linked back to Biden’s global climate promises.

THE LAW OF MORE — HITTING CLIMATE TARGETS DEPENDS ON BIG BUDGET BILL SUCCEEDING. Department of Energy officials are excited that the infrastructure bill is now the law of the land, but they’re really hoping the budget bill survives in something like its current form. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk described the two bills as interlocking puzzle pieces, with climate success riding on the “enormous amounts of additional funding, additional levers, including a huge amount over 300 billion in tax incentives,” in the budget bill. “We need to be honest. To do what we need, and what science and common sense is telling us … we need as many tools, as many authorities, as many funding streams, as we possibly can have.” Watch the interview here.

WHAT GAS PLAN? COW-SHAPED HOLE IN BIDEN’S METHANE POLICY: The Department of Energy may be excited about methane, but the main source of it — cows — is not part of the “whole-of-government initiative that uses all available tools,” to address America’s problematic methane emissions, writes Viveca Morris, who argues that the Biden methane plan “misrepresents and minimizes the livestock sector’s contribution to the methane emergency.”

FLYING HIGH, EMITTING LOW: If you want to see the current state of airport efforts to control carbon: Airports Council International has just released its first World Sustainability Strategy for Airports.

FIRST IN GLOBAL INSIDER — REPUBLICANS WRITE TO GUTERRES URGING NO RECOGNITION OF TALIBAN: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) urged U.N. bodies to hold off recognizing the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan “at all costs” in a new letter to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres. The pair write that “sanctions against the Afghan Taliban should not be lifted” and Taliban recognition would “delegitimize the United Nations as an institution” and defy historical precedent (the U.N. did not recognize the previous Taliban government in the 1990s). Full letter here.

COVID — PFIZER JOINS MEDICINE PATENTS POOL: Pfizer Inc. applied Tuesday for emergency authorization for its experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill, but it isn’t waiting for approval to shake up its distribution plan. Pfizer will license the pill to a U.N.-backed nonprofit enabling production in around 95 countries by generic drug makers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The goal: avoid with this pill the severe delays low- and middle-income countries experienced in accessing Covid vaccines.

Moderna is also close to a deal to deliver its vaccine at $7 per shot (rather than $20) to low- and middle-income countries.

WTO — U.S. WORKING AGAINST EFFORTS TO LIMIT COVID-RELATED EXPORT RESTRICTIONS: Washington is trying to dilute the World Trade Organization trade and health statement that countries are negotiating ahead of the institution’s ministerial meeting, kicking off later this month. The U.S. version of the text, seen by POLITICO, eliminates a section limiting export restrictions to three months (the U.S. has had export restrictions in place for well over one year). It also cuts a transparency clause on the need for WTO monitoring and removes reference to the COVAX vaccine facility.

In contrast, the draft compromise statement prepared by New Zealand Ambassador David Walker says that members “will exempt shipments of essential Covid-19 products to humanitarian and equitable access mechanisms (such as COVAX) from export restrictions and prohibitions.” An official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not address the text leaked to POLITICO, saying only that “we are trying to be pragmatic.”

EUROPE — MEET THE EU’S ANSWER TO CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD: Called Global Gateway, the plan is to be “a multiplier for high standard investments and infrastructure” built to “the highest environmental, and financial transparency standards. It will forge links not create dependencies,” per European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who made an unsubtle dig at China with that framing. She compares Global Gateway to Biden’s Build Back Better World vision, and said the rest of the world needs European tech (from smart cities to wind power) and investment (think for example a new partnership to coax South Africa off coal) to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees celsius. But there’s geopolitics and money at the core of the thinking, too: “Let’s not kid ourselves: If we Europeans don’t do it, others will,” von der Leyen said.

CHINA CORNER

WORLD UYGHUR CONGRESS: Reid Standish reports from Prague on Uyghur fears that for all the West’s genocide labeling of Uyghur treatment, Beijing still faces very little accountability, and virtually nothing has changed for the better for Uyghurs themselves.

BEIJING OLYMPICS BOYCOTT CHECK-IN: U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday pressured President Biden to bar U.S. officials from attending Beijing Olympics, but on the prospects of a wider boycott: “I don’t think we’ll get it done,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who supports a diplomatic boycott. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the White House may ban government-sponsored travel around the Games.

Nikki Haley, a former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, told Global Insider: “The United States must boycott the Olympics completely. That includes our president. Attending sends a message that America is willing to turn a blind eye as Communist China commits genocide.”

ENVOY TO BRUSSELS ISSUES NEW THREATS: China’s ambassador in Brussels Zhang Ming warned Tuesday that Beijing is “prepared to take decisive measures” against any country recognizing Taiwan, as Lithuania did recently. During a think tank webinar he said “any attempt to cross the red line relating to the One China principle — which is in our core interests — is not allowed.” Last time Global Insider checked it is the European Court of Justice, not Beijing, that has the last word on what is, and isn’t, allowed in the EU.

RUSSIA RUMBLING

When National Security Council officials approached Biden with a package of sanctions to impose on Russia earlier this year, he sent it back to them three times. Was it enough? Russian leader Vladimir Putin continues to amass troops along his country’s western borders (around 100,000 troops). French President Emmanuel Macron told Putin Tuesday that France will “defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” A joint statement by the French and German foreign ministries warned a Russian incursion would have “serious consequences.”

Putin’s end game: Not necessarily Ukraine. With Belarus and the EU in a growing and now violent border dispute, Putin has a chance to sow chaos and make NATO look weak: Historically, those are tempting opportunities for him.

Reality check: The human trafficking and humanitarian crisis at the EU’s borders with Belarus shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. It’s what happens when you let neighbors know you can be bought off if you agree to keep migrants out of the EU, as Max Fisher details here.

Armenia-Azerbaijan: Armenia announced a Russia-brokered truce to a border skirmish Tuesday between it and Azerbaijan. A 2020 conflict between the two countries killed 6,500.

TECH — BIGGER BLUE: IBM has created the world’s largest superconducting quantum computer. IBM’s 127-qubit Eagle processor is well beyond computers that Google and China’s National Supercomputer Center Chinese have developed in the 60-qubit range.

BARBADOS INVITES YOU FOR A VIRTUAL VISIT: It’s not Global Insider’s idea of a beach getaway, but with rising seas levels, it might be the safest option. The island nation is the first country to open an official embassy in the metaverse.

Side note: We’re still talking about the Metaverse, which means Facebook is starting to win its PR war.

COP26 PRESIDENT TO STAY IN POST: The summit may be over, but the job isn’t for COP26 President Alok Sharma. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants Sharma working full-time "making sure the promises made in Glasgow are delivered not diluted," and “pushing countries to go further still.”

WELCOME TO D.C., PETER THIEL. IS ELON MUSK NEXT? Thiel’s company Palantir gives out great free coffee in Davos. What will he do to make friends in Democrat-heavy Washington?

ICYMI: SUMMIT ON THE VALUE OF FOREIGN AID FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES: Full summit video.

SHORT READ: The absurd side of the social justice industry, by Michelle Goldberg

SHORT READ: How four women would redesign their work weeks, by Nuha Dolby.

SHORT READ: “This experience broke a lot of people” — Inside the State Department during the Afghanistan withdrawal, by Natasha Korecki and Nahal Toosi

LONG READ: Leadership Now, a special report by Fortune

SERIES: Women in the new hybrid workplace, by POLITICO’s Women Rule collective.

CHILDREN’S BOOK: Pinkie Promises, by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is on a book tour; illustrated by Charlene Chua.

BOOK: Long Haul COVID: A Survivor’s Guide, by Julie Luongo and Dr. Joseph Trunzo.

Thanks to editor John Yearwood, Barbara Moens and Aitor Hernández-Morales