COP26 boost as China and US vow to help curb climate change
AMERICA and China have agreed to cooperate with other countries to curb climate change, just a week before US President Joe Biden hosts an online summit of world leaders to discuss the issue.
The agreement between the world’s largest two polluters was reached by US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua during two days of talks in Shanghai, the US State Department said.
The news is a major boost as countries around the world prepare for the next UN climate summit taking place in Glasgow in November.
“The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,” a joint statement said.
China and America are the world’s top carbon polluters, pumping out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet’s atmosphere.
Their cooperation is key to a success of global efforts to curb climate change, but frayed ties over human rights, trade and China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea have been threatening to undermine such efforts.
Mr Kerry warned the consequences of not taking further action on climate change would be “beyond catastrophic” for the planet.
The former secretary of state said the need to tackle the issue is “extremely urgent” for the whole world.
According to the joint statement, the two countries will enhance “their respective actions and cooperating in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement”.
It said both countries “are firmly committed to working together and with other Parties to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement”.
Mr Kerry’s Shanghai trip marked the highest-level travel to China by a US official since Mr Biden took office in January.
From Shaghai, the former secretary of state flew to South Korea for talks.
Mr Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, to the April 22-23 summit.
The US and other countries are expected to announce more ambitious national targets for cutting carbon emissions ahead of or at the meeting, along with pledging financial help for climate efforts by less wealthy nations.
It was unclear during Mr Kerry’s visit how much it would promote Us-china cooperation on climate issues.
When Mr Kerry was still in Shanghai, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng signalled China is unlikely to make any new pledges at next week’s summit. “For a big country with
1.4 billion people, these goals are not easily delivered,” Mr Le said. “Some countries are asking China to achieve the goals earlier. I am afraid this is not very realistic.”
On whether Mr Xi would join the summit, Mr Le said: “The Chinese side is actively studying the matter.”
Mr Biden, who has said fighting global warming is among his highest priorities, had America rejoin the Paris climate accord in the first hours of his presidency, undoing the withdrawal ordered by predecessor Donald Trump.
Mr Kerry told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “The word ‘urgent’ is totally applicable to the current crisis that we’re in because countries are simply not getting the job done.
“Even if we did everything that we set out to do in the Paris Agreement, the Earth’s temperature is going to increase a very significant amount, perhaps as much as 3.7 degrees or more, and the reason for the real urgency now is that because we’re not getting done what we said we’d do in Paris, it’s actually heading towards four degrees or more.
“That’s beyond catastrophic in the consequences to food production, water, habitability in various parts of the planet, the melting of ice, the sea level rise, the warming – all the consequences.”
Mr Kerry said that nations, including the UK, have a “stake in the outcome of the climate issue”. He added the US has a “duty” to rejoin the agreement and apologised for the nation becoming a “renegade” in tackling climate change under the previous administration.
For a country of 1.4 billion, these goals are not easily delivered