The United States and China also committed today to working together and with other countries to achieve successful climate outcomes this year by adopting an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, and approving a global market-based measure for addressing carbon emissions from worldwide aviation.
Advertisement
For China, ratifying the agreement fits with Beijing’s domestic political agenda of being seen to make efforts to clean up the environment, after years of breakneck industrial development led to soaring air, water and ground pollution. Fifty-five nations must join for the agreement to take effect.
The agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the Secretary-General. And, as noted earlier, the Senate has plainly stated that setting any greenhouse gas reduction targets and timetables under the UNFCCC would require its advice and consent.
The White House hopes that will happen before the end of the year.
Among the things that China and the United States agreed to discuss were airplane emissions and hydrofluorocarbons.
Although 180 nations signed the global climate pledge in December 2015, at the United Nations summit held in Paris, only 25 countries have formally ratified it thus far – Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, told Reuters.
Perhaps most important, however, were the nations’ agreements regarding their own carbon emissions production. With the USA and China’s signatures, the agreement has received a huge boon to that emissions target. US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a supporter of the accord, but her rival, Republican nominee Donald Trump has said he’d dump the Paris agreement if elected, saying climate change is an elaborate hoax.
The stakes are high for China to pull off a trouble-free G20 summit of the world’s top economies, its highest profile event of the year, as it looks to cement its global standing and avoid acrimony over a long list of tensions with Washington.
Lin said choking smog in China’s major cities and money to be made in green energy are motivation enough to cut pollution. “I don’t think they’re going to be turning around just because of the results of the election”.
Neither of those requirements implies a commitment to cut absolute levels of emissions, although China is also obliged to have them peak by “around 2030”.
Song argues if United States support for that work drops off, “that [research] may actually slow down a few years down the road”. Panagariya said the calculation of cutting carbon emissions was based on the GDP.
Advertisement
Climate represents a more certain piece of his legacy. The article includes updates on Saturday from Agence France-Presse and the PRI newsroom.
