British PM Boris Johnson says dealing with Biden a 'breath of fresh air' compared to Trump

• British PM Boris Johnson signaled it's much easier working with Biden on climate change than Trump.
• "Dealing with the new American president, yes, it is a breath of fresh air," Johnson said on NBC's "Today."
• "Climate change, he's great on that," Johnson said of Biden.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday said collaborating with President Joe Biden on the issue of climate change is a "breath of fresh air" compared to working with the Trump administration.

"What I will say about Joe Biden and dealing with the new American president, yes, it is a breath of fresh air in the sense of the some things on which we can really really work together. And, you knew I was gonna bring it up - climate change, he's great on that," Johnson told Savannah Guthrie during an interview on NBC's "Today" that aired Tuesday.

"And he wants to cut CO2. He wants to get to net zero by 2050, and he shares with me, a basic view that you can do this without penalizing the economy," Johnson said.

When asked about his amicable relationship with Trump, the British prime minister told Guthrie that UK and US leaders are "fated to get along."

Biden's approach to climate change has marked a drastic shift from his predecessor, including reversing President Donald Trump's move to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord - a landmark pact between almost 200 nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions .

Trump repeatedly suggested climate change was a hoax, scoffing at dire warnings from the world's top scientists about the rapid warming of the planet.

Adressing climate change was a major theme in Biden's speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

"As a global community, we're challenged by urgent and looming crises wherein lie enormous opportunities if - if - we can summon the will and resolve to seize these opportunities," Biden said. "Will we meet the threat of challenging climate - the challenging climate we're all feeling already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather? Or will we suffer the merciless march of ever-worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heatwaves and rising seas?"

Biden said that the "borderless climate crisis" has induced "widespread death and devastation" across the world so far this year.

"The extreme weather events that we have seen in every part of the world - and you all know it and feel it - represent what the Secretary-General has rightly called 'code red for humanity,'" Biden added. "And the scientists and experts are telling us that we're fast approaching a 'point of no return,' in the literal sense."

Biden called on other countries to "bring their highest-possible ambitions to the table" at the upcoming UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in terms of what can be done to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.