US, China vow lifts hope for resolution
LONDON: The US and China have put aside diplomatic differences to pledge “enhanced” action to curb global warming in the next decade.
In an unusual joint declaration issued in Glasgow, the world’s two largest emitters agreed to co-operate in limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C.
They pledged to take specific measures to cut methane emissions over the next 10 years and to enforce bans on imports linked to illegal deforestation.
China repeated a promise to “phase down coal consumption” from 2026 but added that it would “make best efforts to accelerate this work”.
The countries also committed themselves to “work co-operatively” at COP26 to persuade other countries to sign up to a package to speed up carbon-reduction pledges.
The joint declaration comes despite a background of deep political mistrust between the two governments that had threatened to spill over into Glasgow.
Last week US President Joe Biden criticised President Xi Jinping for “not turning up” at the UN conference.
The UK government hopes the rapprochement will put pressure on other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which have been seeking to limit the ambition of the final summit communique.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that people would find it “absolutely incomprehensible” if world leaders “stood in the way” of an ambitious deal.
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, said that the US and China had “no shortage of differences” on climate change but agreed that “co-operation is the only way”.
“This is not a discretionary thing, frankly, this is science, it’s maths and physics that dictate the road that we have to travel,” Mr Kerry said.
Xie Zhenhua, his Chinese counterpart, said: “Climate change is becoming an increasingly urgent challenge. We hope this joint declaration will help to achieve success at COP26.”
One source close to the talks said the joint statement was helpful but that any final deal had to be signed off by all 197 parties to the negotiations. Unresolved issues include a new mechanism by which countries have to update pledges more frequently and a regimen for verifying carbon-reduction claims.
Nick Mabey, chief executive of the E3G, a climatechange think tank, said the declaration made it more likely countries would agree at COP26 that they should return next year with stronger emissions-reduction targets.
“This truce between US and China, which have been sniping at each other, could help deliver a transformational Glasgow outcome,” Mr Mabey said.
The UK government team at COP26 believes the declaration is significant and hope that it means China will agree to bring forward from 2029 its deadline for reaching peak emissions.