The United States was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the Group of 20 summit that starts Sunday in in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
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China would continue to push yuan internationalization and gradually open up the capital account, he said. India is the third-largest producer of carbon emissions.
The proposal adopted by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee says the agreement will help China “play a bigger role in global climate governance”, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
In Paris last December, almost 200 countries agreed on a binding global compact to slash greenhouse gases and keep global temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. After repeated failures to reach consensus at worldwide global warming negotiations, US and Chinese officials embarked on a years-long diplomatic push to find common ground on climate change.
The accord, which sets ambitious goals for capping global warming and funnelling trillions of dollars to poor countries, will come into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it. It is the world’s biggest polluter and responsible for about 25 percent of global carbon emissions. Russian Federation accounts for 7.5 percent, with India pushing out 4.1 percent.
CHINA’S top legislature on Saturday ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, a significant worldwide legal document that outlines post-2020 global climate governance.
The two leaders presided over a meeting that saw delegations from both countries sign three agreements covering nuclear security, energy and agricultural health certification.
This marks Obama’s last trip to Asia as president.
Obama and Xi committed to cooperate on two other global environmental agreements this year – an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down air-conditioning refrigerants and on a market-based measure to reduce carbon emissions from aviation. Prior to China and America’s agreement Saturday, 23 countries – representing just 1% of emissions – had agreed to the terms set out.
“Part of what I’ve tried to communicate to President Xi is that the United States arrives at its power, in part, by restraining itself”, Obama said.
Xi said the announcement “hopefully will encourage other countries to take similar actions”. Environmental groups and experts tracking global climate policy said they expected the two leaders would jointly enter the sweeping emissions-cutting deal reached past year in Paris.
Obama presented a redwood bench where the pair would escape the Palm Springs sun to the Chinese leader as a parting gift, and the next year China and the US announced a historic climate accord that paved the way for negotiations on the Paris climate accord.
“All countries will need to raise the ambition of their commitments under the agreement if we’re to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and reach a goal of net zero global warming emissions by mid-century”, Meyer said.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said that climate change concerns the well-being and future of humanity. China vowed that its emissions, which are still growing, will top out by 2030.
