The suspension of China’s cooperation with the US on global warming worries experts, but they hope that the friction between the two powers on such an important front for the future of humanity will be only temporary.
At the UN climate conference COP26, held in Glasgow at the end of 2021, Washington and Beijing announced a surprise agreement to strengthen their cooperation.
But after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on Friday, China suspended all cooperation with Americans in various fields, including combating climate change.
“It’s clearly worrisome,” Alden Meyer, an analyst with the E3G research group, told AFP.
“If the two biggest economies and the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters don’t act, it’s impossible to tackle the climate emergency and it’s always better if they do it cooperatively,” he added.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also speculates that Sino-American cooperation is the key to all “worrying problems”.
The Chinese decision raises many questions.
Alden Meyer: “Is this a tactical decision or a long-term strategy? Does China mean that cooperation is impossible as long as there are tensions?” she asked.
Greenpeace’s Li Shuo on Twitter, “What are the conditions for restarting the dialogue? In the meantime, what can be done to limit the damage and rebuild trust?” he wrote.
And what about at the United Nations climate conference in Egypt in November, at COP27?
“The answers will be important not only for both countries, but also for the planet,” the activist insisted.
“Disaster”
Since the pre-industrial era, Earth’s temperature has risen by an average of 1.2°C, creating increasingly intense and repetitive heat waves, droughts, floods and storms across all continents.
According to experts from the UN Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), +2.8°C could rise by 2100 even if states meet their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
These commitments have been further weakened by the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and especially by the war in Ukraine, which has led to the re-starting of coal-fired power plants.
In this context, for IPCC member François Gemenne, China’s decision is “a complete disaster for the climate”, “comparable to the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement” aimed at bringing global warming below +2°C. , if possible at +1.5°C.
Experts say the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement, taken by Donald Trump and reversed by Joe Biden, was accompanied by a setback in US domestic and foreign climate policy.
China’s announcement “definitely is not a retreat from the international climate scenario or a rejection of climate action,” David Waskow of the World Resources Institute told AFP.
“Disconnecting from diplomacy does not mean that China has given up on its commitments,” said Mohamed Adow of the Power Shift Africa research group.
“China is ahead of the US in many ways in its fight against global warming,” Adow told AFP.
Biden has pledged to reduce US emissions by 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, although some progress has been made recently, Congress’ refusal to pass environmental plans so far has thwarted his ambitions.
China, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in absolute terms, but far behind the United States in emissions per capita, has pledged to reach its highest emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Alden Meyer predicted that with or without co-operation with the United States, China “will be pressured by other countries – those in the European Union, vulnerable countries – to strengthen its commitments”.
source: Noticias
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