Biden, Xi push to break ice over frosty relations
WASHINGTON/BEIJING: Emboldened by a stronger domestic political hand at both ends, United States President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping, in their first in-person meeting as presidents, candidly conveyed to each other their intentions, priorities and redlines on issues such as the Ukraine war, Taiwan, human rights, trade, and the regional security environment.
With US-China tensions escalating in recent years, Biden said he wanted to ensure that the vigorous competition did not veer towards a conflict and that he was not looking for a new Cold War, while Xi said that the current state of bilateral relations was not in the interest of the two nations. They also agreed to deepen channels of communication across domains between the two countries — Secretary of State Antony J Blinken will travel to Beijing to continue the discussions — and collaborate where possible, including on the climate crisis.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Biden told Xi: “As the leaders of our two nations, we share a responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation.”
Xi told Biden that it had been 50 years since China and the US had established diplomatic ties, and this history offered lessons. “Currently, the state of China-US relations is not in the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people,” Xi said, and added that it was not “what the international community expects from the two countries either”.
Biden and Xi have spoken to each other five times since the US President took office in January 2021. While they have a decade-old relationship, this was their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office as president. Both leaders approached the meeting on a stronger domestic political footing.
SHARM EL SHEIKH: India on Monday released its long-term climate action strategy, detailing how it will take steps like rapidly expanding renewable energy sources and exploring a greater role for nuclear power to reach net zero emissions by 2070, but separately also turned up the heat on developed countries to do more.
Environment minister Bhupender Yadav, representing India at the UN Climate Conference (COP27) at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, used two occasions at the summit to call on rich countries to do more: First, he said, some of them must reach net zero emissions even before 2030, and, second, they must elaborate on their immediate plans on how they intend to reach their targets since some have “turned back to fossil fuels” due to the ongoing energy crisis.
The first stance was made during the ministerial high-level roundtable on the pre-2030 ambition, where Yadav pointed out that rich nations had not met their commitments for the 2020 deadline. “So pre-2030 ambition must be measured in terms of whether countries are staying within their fair share of the carbon budget, taking note of both the historical period and in the future. By this scientific criterion, some developed countries must reach net zero even before 2030 and 2050 is not enough at all,” Yadav said in his intervention.
The other calls on rich countries to do more were articulated during the launch of India’s longterm low emission development strategy (LT-LEDS), which India released on Monday, becoming one of only 57 countries to do so.
“We also call upon developed countries to elaborate on their immediate plans on how they would achieve their targets. We see that following the current energy crisis, many have turned back to increased fossil fuels for energy security. It is not enough to say that targets for emissions reduction will be met, when the reality is that they will unequally consume even more of the carbon budget,” Yadav said.
“In a COP of Implementation, it is essential to make progress on adaptation and loss and damage. Now is the time to tell the developing world how the promise of USD 100 billion is to be met. We, at Glasgow, noted with regret that it is indeed not being met. The world would like to know how the resources for meeting the world’s adaptation needs, whose estimates are rising constantly, are to be mobilised.”
India’s LT-LEDS itself is premised on four key considerations, the environment minister said.
First, India has contributed little to global warming despite being home to a sixth of the world’s population; second, India has significant energy needs for development; third, India is committed to pursuing low-carbon strategies for development and, fourth, India need’s climate resilience.
“The LT-LEDS has been prepared in the framework of India’s right to an equitable and fair share of the global carbon budget. This is the practical implementation of India’s call for ‘climate justice’,” he said. Developments over recent days suggest rifts are widening over developing nations such as India and developed countries over the climate crisis action plan.
US Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said on Sunday that a few countries have resisted mentioning a global goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C in the official text of the COP27, Euronews reported.
A senior delegate from India also said on Saturday that during meetings on mitigation work programmes (MWP) – measures that relate to lowering emissions -- rich countries outlined the top 20 emitters and insisted that the measures be addressed to these.
This is key because many of the top emitters in absolute terms are developing countries like India, China and Brazil, but in per capita terms, and when historical emissions are considered, their role in the warming of the planet has been demonstrably lower than industrialised western nations.
Observers also said the US and other Annex 1 countries were trying to selectively push a language on 1.5°C goal that goes against principles of equity and “common but differentiated responsibilities” that were agreed upon under the Paris Agreement, and indirectly pushes all countries to embrace net zero emission goals by 2050.
“You cannot selectively use the 1.5°C goal for cover text when finance to achieve that goal has not come through. We will oppose such moves because it’s not equitable,” said a member of the Indian delegation, asking not to be named.