OpEdNews Op Eds3/18/2016 at 12:28:11
China, U.S. and Climate Change:
"Amazing model for negotiating meaningful action"
ByRobert Weiner
Headlined to H4 3/18/16
By Robert Weiner, Lile Fu and Ben Lasky
The U.S.-China climate-change agreement experienced a long, tough process until the two countries led the 195 nations who agreed on December 12, 2015, in Paris. World leaders convened despite the Paris terror attacks the week before and made a point of solidarity to show terror will not stop positive world action. But the treaty was far more than that--it was years in the making, and few thought the US and China -- the world's two biggest polluters -- would agree. It is an amazing model for meaning action on many controversial world issues. How did it happen?
By itself, the bilateralU.S. China Joint Presidential statement on Climate changeon September 25, 2015, a precursor to the world agreement, was praised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "The joint China-U.S. announcement signals the shared vision and seriousness with which the world's two largest economies are moving to a low-carbon future." Ki-Moon told Xinhua News Agency, one of the official news agencies in China.
In the last two Democratic debates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has talked about her role in coming to this agreement. "I worked with President Obama during the four years I was secretary of state to begin to put pressure on China and India and other countries to join with us to have a global agreement which we finally got in Paris," Clinton said on March 6. At the Florida debate on March 9, Clinton said, "We also do have to combat climate change, and no state has more at stake in that than Florida. And the best way to do that is not only enforcing the laws we have, but also the clean power plan that President Obama has put forth that I support, and the Paris agreement that I think was a huge step forward in the world."
In fact, China and the United States used to oppose climate-change agreements. However, the opposition from the U.S. ended when Barack Obama was elected. In October during the first democratic debate, Hillary Clinton recalled that she and President Obama were eager to talk with the Chinese at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, "Because there will be no effective efforts against climate unless China and India join the rest of the world."
However, the two countries failed to sit down together and hammer out a compromise on climate change. Instead, Brazil, South Africa, India and China built up a formation of the BASIC, which represented developing countries' attitude towards developed countries' omission on carbon emissions' standard.
In 2011, at United Nations Climate Change conference in Duban, China and the U.S. both agreed that it was necessary to reduce carbon emissions, which was a breakthrough in the treaty negotiations. Although, according toThe Guardian, this deal only included the principles on which future negotiations would be based on, rather than reaching a consensus on how far and how fast countries should be cutting their carbon dioxide.
On April 13, 2013, current Secretary of State John Kerry began his first visit to China, and one of his achievements of this visit was the launch of the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group, which was "intended to spur large-scale, cooperative efforts to address the climate challenge, including deepening and expanding work already underway," according to U.S. Department of State's website.
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According to Consulate-general of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco's website, "Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met with Kerry during this meeting, noted that coping with climate change may become a new growth point in Sino China relationship, and China would make positive contributions to the world's movement against climate change."
On July 10, 2013, the U.S. and China agreed on five new action initiatives with the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and air pollution developed by the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group.
As the biggest greenhouse gas emitter and the second-largest economy following the United States, China's action will also have vital influence on global carbon-dioxide emissions as well as international climate issue. The informal talks between China's President Xi Jinping and President Obama in June 2013 at Sunnylands in California was the first meeting since Xi Jinping was elected on March 14, 2013. Both countries agreed on building a new type of major-power relationship.
In November of 2013, Xie Zhenhua, the vice chairman of China's national development and reform commission, announced the publication ofChina's National Climate Change Adaptation Planat the United Nations Climate Change conference inWarsaw,Poland, which was the first climate-change agenda in China. And that plan indicated that the two countries weren't far apart on at treaty.
At the sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing on July 9, 2014, according toThe Washington Post, "the two sides announced small technology-sharing projects to raise energy efficiency and cut coal use, as part of gradual efforts to deepen their cooperation on climate change. This speeded up two countries' deal making."
On November 14, 2014,US China Announcement on Climate Changewas published in Beijing, China. John Kerry, who was devoted to making the deal, declared it a milestone in the U.S.-China relationship. Kerry called it, "The outcome of a concerted effort that beganlast year in Beijing, when State CouncilorYang Jiechiand I started the United States-China Climate Change Working Group."
After the announcement ofUS China Announcement on Climate Change, bilateral cooperation between the two countries got closer. According to U.S. department of State, from March 18 to 20, 2015, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern, Acting Assistant Secretary Judith Garber for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs Jonathan Elkind traveled to Beijing for a series of meetings on climate change and environmental collaboration.
Then on June 23, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang chaired two high-level events to strengthen joint efforts on climate change: one was a public dialogue - "Act on Climate: Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) Celebration of Energy and Environment Cooperation" - moderated by Chairman of the Paulson Institute Hank Paulson; another was a private Joint Session on Climate Change.
Those actions all indicate the birth of another climate-change deal with further and deeper cooperation.
On September 25, 2015,US China Joint Presidential statement on Climate changewas announced during China's President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the US, which did not stress the announcement on bilateral cooperation on climate change signed in 2014, but on a good example on international cooperation.
"The dynamic between the U.S. and China has totally changed. "They used to blame each other for inaction. Now they're encouraging each other toward more ambitious action," Eric Pooley, senior vice president for strategy and communications at the Environmental Defense Fund, told theLos Angeles Times.
If these two countries, who were so far apart on any climate-change agreement not too long ago can come to this historic agreement, it is not only a model for other treaties throughout the world, but international cooperation of any kind.
Robert Weiner is a former spokesman for the Clinton White House and House Government Operations Committee, and was senior staff for Reps. John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch and Sen. Edward Kennedy. Lile Fu, from Beijing, China, a student at Communication University of China and a Washington Semester Program participant at American University, is a policy analyst at Solutions for Change and a National Press Club intern. Ben Lasky is a senior policy analyst at Solutions for Change.