More than cordiality needed for climate cooperation

Although Beijing has not confirmed that John Kerry, US special envoy for climate change, will visit next month, the wide attention being paid to a Reuters’ report citing “two people familiar with the plans” speaks volumes of the world’s hopes that China and the United States can carve out climate change as an area for collaboration amid their escalating tensions.

As the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, China and the US shoulder a common responsibility to cut their emissions. And with time pressing to constrain the global temperature rise, it is imperative that all countries pull in the same direction to avert a climate cataclysm. There is broad space for the two countries to deepen their cooperation on this most exigent of issues and set a good example for the world.

However, as Kerry should know from his previous visit in April, China will never succumb to any pressure from the US aimed at compelling it to take unreasonable actions to cut emissions, a tactic the US administration has been adopting to assert US leadership on the issue.

The hegemonic thinking with which the US addresses climate issues is evident. While calling for cooperation with China, it is still imposing arbitrary technology and trade sanctions on it and blacklisting Chinese entities.

Cooperation to combat climate change cannot be carried out independent of normal technology, trade and personnel exchanges.

With the United Nations’ Global Climate Summit scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in early November, China will stick to the emissions reduction road map it has charted, and will implement measures to peak emissions before 2030 and realize carbon neutrality before 2060.

This is a challenging task as the time span between the emissions peak and carbon neutrality is the shortest proposed by all major economies. Not to mention that China will try to achieve that before its industrialization is concluded. Bearing that in mind, the US has no grounds to try and claim moral superiority on the issue.

If Kerry comes to court China’s endorsement for the US’ so-called plan for a decade of action on climate change, he should first ensure it upholds the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

A lot has happened since Kerry visited in April. Whatever agenda he has, he should keep in mind the three redlines and two to-do lists Beijing has set out for Washington. Beijing has made it clear that no cooperation is possible unless Washington observes the redlines and acts to address the items on the to-do lists.

Since the US has so far ignored these, Kerry’s visit is likely to be little more than a cordial repeat of his previous visit, which left the door open but yielded limited tangible outcomes.