New China, US climate talks begin
New talks between Beijing and Washington begin as world two biggest polluters look to coordinate climate change mitigation efforts
China and the United States, the world’s two biggest polluters, have begun new talks on climate change mitigation, and the two countries have entered a new phase in their co-ordinated environmental efforts.
China’s chief climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said that Beijing’s talks with Washington could pave the way for “China and the US to build a new big country relationship”.
With legally binding agreements on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets set to be finalised at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Zhenhua said he was “confident” that the conference would represent a landmark.
Robert Stanvins, the Harvard professor and climate negotiations expert, described the talks as the “most promising developments since the Kyoto Protocol”, which set the first binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce GHG emissions in 1997.
Chinahas been taking measures to curb its environmental impact and Premier Li Keqiang declared a 'war on pollution' during his opening speech of parliament in March.
Chinahas also passed a plan to combat soil pollution with the government becoming increasingly concerned about the risk that contaminated farmland is posing to nationwide food supplies.
Ahead of the UN’s Bonn Climate Change Conference in March, China said that developed countries should accept their responsibility to provide technological and financial support to developing nations as they have produced the majority of GHG emissions.
The U.S has also made significant efforts to increase the increase the amount of renewables in its energy mix and has increased its solar power capacity by 418 per cent over the last four years.
U.S President Barack Obama unveiled a $1 billion fund in his 2015 budget earlier this year to assist communities in the United States in dealing with floods, drought, heat waves, and wildfires; with recent disasters including Superstorm Sandy in 2012 causing a sense of urgency in the President’s administration to implement policies.