US President Joe Biden is scrambling to salvage key elements of his ambitious climate agenda that he wants to showcase at the upcoming COP 26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, as left-leaning members of his party threatened to scuttle a $1trn infrastructure bill set for a final vote today (Thursday) in the House of Representatives.

Failure to get it passed would be a high-profile, embarrassing setback for Biden on what has been his signature issue since he took office in January and raise fresh questions over his management skills, political acumen, and reliability to keep US commitments on combatting global heating.