US, China commit to tougher action on climate change

The US and China have committed to taking stronger measures to tackle climate change in the coming decade, in a rare example of a bilateral agreement amid the two countries' increasingly strained relationship.

Washington and Beijing will take "enhanced climate actions" and work together to help meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) said in a joint statement today.

The 2015 Paris accord aims to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. In that regard, the US and China have committed to "taking enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s in the context of the Paris Agreement", the statement said.

The pledges followed meetings between US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Shanghai on 15-16 April.

In the short term, the two governments said they intend to develop, by the UN's Cop-26 climate talks in November, their long-term strategies to achieve net-zero GHG emissions and carbon neutrality. They also agreed to take unspecified actions to maximise investment in and financing for the energy transition.

Discussions will continue both before and after the Cop-26 summit on concrete actions in the 2020s to reduce emissions, the statement said. These include decarbonising the industrial and power sectors, addressing emissions from civil aviation and maritime activities, and reducing emissions from coal, oil and gas.

Both countries look forward to the US-hosted virtual climate summit on 22-23 April, the statement said. Chinese president Xi Jinping has yet to formally commit to attending the summit, which was called by US president Joe Biden in the hope of sparking accelerated international action on climate change.

The statement did not include any new, measurable commitments on emissions-reduction by China, which has already agreed to peak emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Climate change is one of the few issues on which the US and China appear to have enough common ground to work together, as the deterioration in relations between the two countries that started under the administration of former US president Donald Trump shows little sign of improving under Biden.

The first meeting of top Chinese and US diplomats since Biden was elected descended into a slanging match last month, while China's foreign ministry yesterday said it "deplored" references to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other sensitive issues in a joint statement following Biden's meeting with Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga. Washington and Tokyo also agreed to strengthen their co-operation on climate change during that meeting, Suga said.

By Kevin Foster