Speaking in the presence of the Chinese president and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Obama said: “Just as I believe the Paris agreement will ultimately prove to be a turning point for our planet, I believe that history will judge today’s efforts as pivotal”.
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The accord reached by almost 200 countries at a United Nations conference on climate change in Paris in December will take effect after it is ratified by at least 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of global emissions.
The global economic recovery remained weak and G20 countries should take steps to revive trade and investment, Xi said, pointing to challenges including the refugee crisis, climate change and terrorism. He said of the Paris agreement: “Some day we may see this as the moment that we finally made a decision to save our planet”.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who arrives in China later on Saturday, is also expected to announce his formal adoption of the climate agreement. The announcement means the accord could take force by the end of the year, a faster than anticipated timeline.
China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, voted to adopt “the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement”, the official Xinhua news agency said. The U.S., for instance, has pledged to slash its emissions by up to 28 percent of its 2005 levels by 2025, while China has promised to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. And the countries that join must account for at least 55 percent of the world’s emissions.
The agreement forged by 195 nations last December in Paris sets non-binding targets for the reduction of carbon emissions that most scientists blame for rising temperatures and sea levels. “For decades previously, it was as if China and the USA were the captains of two different teams in approaching climate change, and if we were going to find a path out of Copenhagen’s failure, we were going to need to address that”.
“Over the last eight years we have effectively demonstrated that as the world’s two largest emitters, if we can come together, we can help move the world forward on combatting climate change”, Deese said.
The White House announced President Barack Obama would speak about climate change shortly after landing Saturday.
Xi said plans to cut excess capacity in the steel and coal sectors were based on consideration of China’s long-term growth and structural adjustments.
“Where we see them violating worldwide rules and norms, as we have seen in some cases in the South China Sea or in some of their behavior when it comes to economic policy, we’ve been very firm”, Obama told CNN.
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.
The agreement goes into force when joined by at least 55 nations that produce a total of 55% of global emissions.
Mr Turnbull’s first major bilateral meeting of the two-day summit is expected to be with President Xi, where economic issues will jostle with security concerns.
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Xi said China and the United States have carried out fruitful cooperation under the G20 framework, and the two sides have maintained close coordination and communication with regard to the preparation of the G20 Hangzhou summit.
