Chinese officials can’t blame the United States for their failures to prosecute an aggressive policy to reduce emissions, according to one of President Joe Biden’s top aides.
“It’s on them,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday, as the U.S. delegation prepared for the launch of an international climate conference in Glasgow. “They are a big country with a lot of resources and a lot of capabilities, and they are perfectly well capable of living up to their responsibilities. It’s up to them to do so.”
That blunt criticism evinced a more forceful public posture than former Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Biden tapped as a special envoy for climate change, has advised. Chinese officials have implied China’s cooperation with the U.S. on climate issues depends on American behavior on other issues, but Sullivan tabbed the regime as one of the “significant outliers” from other wealthy countries working to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above the temperatures that prevailed prior to the industrial era.
“So, we go into COP with roughly 65% of the world’s economy in line with the 1.5-degree commitment, with still some significant outliers,” Sullivan said. “One of those significant outliers being China, who will not be represented at the leader level at COP26 and who we do believe has an obligation to step up to greater ambition as we go forward. And we’ll keep pressing on that.”
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Kerry has cautioned against public criticisms of Beijing. They will not get pushed,” he told Time’s Justin Worland. “If you publicly are trying to hash this out, it’s going to work against you.”
Chinese officials, for their part, maintain that Western powers ought to bear the brunt of the international effort to curb rising temperatures.
“For example, the U.S.’s cumulative historical emissions level per capita are eight times that of China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters Monday. “Developed countries, the U.S. included, should earnestly follow the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, face squarely their historical responsibilities, demonstrate greater ambition and actions, and take the lead in fulfilling emission reduction obligations. Meanwhile, they should provide financial, technological, and capacity-building support to help developing countries enhance their capacity to respond to climate challenges.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who declined to attend in person or even make a virtual appearance, avoided making any new commitments in a written statement. Climate policy experts are watching to see how China, which accounts for more than a quarter of the global carbon dioxide emissions, implements a pledge to cap those emissions by 2030.
“But the huge question is: Does that peak come in 2029 with a lot of growth in the meantime, or are we near peak today and we’re looking at a plateau and then a reduction … as that country reduces its greenhouse gas intensity?” Joseph Majkut of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said last week.
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Sullivan dismissed a question about the ramifications of U.S.-China competition for the climate change portfolio.
“The United States, despite whatever difficulties we have with China, is stepping up,” he said. “The fact that China isn’t is not something that they can readily point to us to say is the reason. … And nothing about the nature of the relationship between the U.S. and China, structurally or otherwise, impedes or stands in the way of them doing their part.”
