The unexpected joint declaration than the United States and China have spread Wednesday from Glasgow climate conference (COP26) does not contain major new promises of initiatives against global warming. However, it was received very positively because it showed that China is still interested in collaborating with other countries in the fight against climate change and could facilitate the reaching of an agreement between all countries at the end of the COP.
In fact, since the beginning of the conference, China had not yet made new commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: it is not among the countries that have signed the agreement on the progressive reduction ofuse of coal and did not join the United States and the European Union in promising to reduce emissions of methane 30 percent by 2030. Theabsence of President Xi Jinping in the early days of the COP it had also been considered a bad sign and had been criticized by many, including US President Joe Biden who called it “a big mistake.”
The joint statement is quite lengthy, but mostly cites targets already set in the past, such as stopping funding for coal mining overseas and a commitment to maintain global average temperatures rising. below 2 ° C, and uses vague formulations. He says that the two countries, which are the two largest economies in the world and also the two main producers of greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms, intend to “work individually, together and with other countries in the next decisive decade, in accordance with the different national circumstances, to strengthen and accelerate action and cooperation on climate ”. The only novelty is China’s indefinite commitment to reduce methane emissions.
The declaration is nevertheless considered a good political signal, which reassured the international delegations on the outcome of the COP26. It was unexpected due to the tensions in relations between China and the United States in many other areas, from trade to respect for human rights, to situation in Taiwan and the anti-China military pact made by the United States with UK and Australia. Some have called it a “climate truce”; the news agency Reuters described it as a “psychological push”.
The fact that China and the United States show a community of intentions on climate indicates that they consider climate change a problem that goes beyond other diplomatic issues, which is of particular importance and should be discussed without being influenced by the competitive logic that characterizes. relations between the two countries. Xie Zhenhua, the main Chinese envoy to COP26, made it clear in his speech announcing the agreement with the United States: “We both know that the challenge posed by climate change is a question of survival.”
Tuesday’s joint statement is far less significant than what Xie and John Kerry, who is the top US envoy to the COP, themselves signed in 2014, when China first announced a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. . That agreement had been crucial to arriving at the Paris Agreement the following year. However, the renewed climate alignment of the two countries should help put more pressure on some fossil fuel producing countries, such as Australia and Saudi Arabia, which could oppose some steps in the draft global agreement prepared for the end of the COP.
The U.S.-China Joint Glasgow Declaration is a step in the right direction, a mark of progress, and a solid foundation for continued cooperation on climate between our two countries. The world can only achieve its climate goals if our countries are pulling in the same direction.
— Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry (@ClimateEnvoy) November 10, 2021
