China has entered the emissions-cutting agreement reached a year ago in Paris in advance of the Group of 20 summit this weekend.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama shake hands as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon looks on during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement in Hangzhou, China.
“Both countries now need to scale and speed up their efforts in charting a future that avoids the worst impacts of climate change”, said Jennifer Morgan Executive Director of Greenpeace International. “Some day we may see this as the moment that we finally chose to save our planet”, said Obama from China ahead of the G20 Summit taking place there.
Xi said he hoped the announcement would benefit everyone.
Trump has since said that was a joke, but last December he told Fox News that he thought climate change is a “big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money”, and singled out China as a beneficiary.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the deal during a meeting in Hangzhou, which is hosting this year’s G-20 summit.
The U.S. and China have also been discussing a global agreement on aviation emissions, though there’s disagreement about what obligations developing countries should face in the first years.
More nations will still need to accept the Paris agreement after the U.S. and China do for it to go into effect.
China is responsible for just over 20 per cent of global emissions while the United States covers another 17.9 per cent. Russian Federation accounts for 7.5 per cent, with India pushing out 4.1 per cent.
The alliance on climate has been a rare bright spot between the USA and China in recent years, a relationship otherwise characterized by tensions over China’s emergence as a key global power.
But he says leadership by the US and China has been one of the biggest drivers of action on the issue, which Obama has highlighted during his presidency.
Countries that ratify the deal will have to wait for three years after it has gone into legal force before they can begin the process of withdrawing from it, according to the agreement signed in Paris last year.
On the sidelines of the upcoming summit of the world’s premier platform for worldwide economic cooperation, which is to open Sunday, Obama is also scheduled to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
It will come into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it.
China and the USA work together on electric vehicles, energy-efficient buildings, and carbon capture techniques, according to Ranping Song from the World Resources Institute.
Ratifying the agreement is in China’s interests and will help the country “play a bigger role in global climate governance”, according to the proposal.
“But this is an important step forward that reinforces the US and China’s continued leadership in building a robust, durable worldwide climate framework”. Entrance by the USA and China will get the deal to about 40 percent of emissions.
Obama could also take the opportunity to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as their foreign ministers work to reach a deal that would ease fighting around Aleppo.
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Syria will shift into focus when Obama meets his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit.
