To the wire negotiations reverse downward spiral in co-operation
WaPo: China, U.S. agree to limit greenhouse gases LA Times: U.S. and Chinese leaders make major breakthrough on climate change The Guardian: China and US announce landmark carbon deal
Link Adds:
Joint Announcement from White House Briefing Rooom Guardian Live Blog with reactions
The breaking news from APEC in Beijing today is that, hot on the heels of an IT Tariffs reduction deal, the US and China have agreed to substantial limits of greenhouse gas emissions over the next few years setting the stage for further progress in the next round of UN climate negotiations in Lima, Peru, in December.
While complete details of the proposed deal have yet to be released and may not be for days, some key points of the agreement include:
• China to cap its carbon emissions by 2030 or sooner • China to increase non-fossil fuels to 20 percent of energy mix by 2030 • US to cut emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 • US & China to resume cooperation on green energy technology development
Speaking on the sidelines, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli stated China would put forth a plan in early 2015 to cap on its greenhouse gases “as soon as possible” and scale back emissions thereafter.
Since first agreeing to cooperate on climate following Obama's first trip to China in 2009, only sporadic progress has been made in bilateral cooperation in the sector, and while neither side abandoned the effort, numerous political set-backs including adversarial negotiating positions in UN negotiations, punitive tariffs against Chinese made PV Solar Panels by the US (despite a net positive trade balance in clean energy in favor of the US) and various other political, territorial and economic frictions made any substantial progress seem unlikely.
The goals for both will be quite challenging to meet, perhaps for different reasons. In the US, political gridlock is bound to slow progress and will depend greatly on the American public recognizing the benefits and embracing change Congress has failed to. In China, still a developing country in many areas and over dependent on coal not just for basic energy but for infrastructure materials like steel and concrete, it will require solving some technological problems and also the political will to double-down on it's already aggressive investment in renewable energy.
Says The Times: “History may look back and say this was the turning point on climate,” said U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), ranking member of the House Energy Committee. The deal was immediately challenged by Obama’s Republican critics on Capitol Hill, who have pledged to make it a priority to roll back the president’s measures on the environment when they assume the majority in Congress next year. The White House did not immediately say whether Obama will propose legislation or use his executive powers to enact changes without lawmakers, though his environmental team expects a fight on the kinds of regulations necessary to carry out his newly set goals. “This unrealistic plan, that the president would dump on his successor, would ensure higher utility rates and far fewer jobs,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement. - snip - China is now by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and carbon emissions per capita have reached the level of the European Union. Its severe air pollution has become a source of domestic discontent and international embarrassment that Chinese leaders can no longer ignore, said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at People’s University in Beijing. “Climate change is now Chinese business. It’s not just someone from the outside pressing” us, he said. China is investing heavily in renewable and nuclear energy, and the economy is slowing. By some estimates, China’s coal consumption this year might actually drop 1% to 2%, for the first time in decades. Beijing wants to shift its economic model toward one of less rapid, more “sustainable” growth and more sophisticated, less-polluting industries.
“History may look back and say this was the turning point on climate,” said U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), ranking member of the House Energy Committee.
The deal was immediately challenged by Obama’s Republican critics on Capitol Hill, who have pledged to make it a priority to roll back the president’s measures on the environment when they assume the majority in Congress next year. The White House did not immediately say whether Obama will propose legislation or use his executive powers to enact changes without lawmakers, though his environmental team expects a fight on the kinds of regulations necessary to carry out his newly set goals.
“This unrealistic plan, that the president would dump on his successor, would ensure higher utility rates and far fewer jobs,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement.
- snip -
China is now by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and carbon emissions per capita have reached the level of the European Union. Its severe air pollution has become a source of domestic discontent and international embarrassment that Chinese leaders can no longer ignore, said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at People’s University in Beijing.
“Climate change is now Chinese business. It’s not just someone from the outside pressing” us, he said.
China is investing heavily in renewable and nuclear energy, and the economy is slowing. By some estimates, China’s coal consumption this year might actually drop 1% to 2%, for the first time in decades. Beijing wants to shift its economic model toward one of less rapid, more “sustainable” growth and more sophisticated, less-polluting industries.
And The Post: The scale of construction for China to meet its goals is huge even by Chinese standards. It must add 800 to 1,000 gigawatts of nuclear, wind, solar and other zero-emission generating capacity by 2030 — more than all the coal-fired power plants that exist in China today and close to the total electricity generating capacity of the United States. - snip - And to meet its target, the United States will need to double the pace of carbon pollution reduction from 1.2 percent per year on average from 2005 to 2020 to 2.3 to 2.8 percent per year between 2020 and 2025. But Xi and Obama have both made climate measures a priority.
The scale of construction for China to meet its goals is huge even by Chinese standards. It must add 800 to 1,000 gigawatts of nuclear, wind, solar and other zero-emission generating capacity by 2030 — more than all the coal-fired power plants that exist in China today and close to the total electricity generating capacity of the United States.
And to meet its target, the United States will need to double the pace of carbon pollution reduction from 1.2 percent per year on average from 2005 to 2020 to 2.3 to 2.8 percent per year between 2020 and 2025.
But Xi and Obama have both made climate measures a priority.
From The Guardian: Tao Wang, climate scholar at the Tsinghua-Carnegie Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said: “It is a very good sign for both countries and injects strong momentum [into negotiations] but the targets are not ambitious enough and there is room for both countries to negotiate an improvement. “That figure isn’t high because China aims to reach about 15% by 2020, so it is only a five percentage point increase in 10 years, and given the huge growth in renewables it should be higher.” Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, which promotes sustainable resource management, said the announcements would “inject a jolt of momentum in the lead up to a global climate agreement in Paris”. “It’s a new day to have the leaders of the US and China stand shoulder to shoulder and make significant commitments to curb their country’s emissions,” he said. Li Shuo, of Greenpeace East Asia, said the announcement showed that the world’s “two biggest emitters have come to the realisation that they are bound together and have to take actions together”. At the Warsaw climate talks in 2013 nations were encouraged to draw up post-2020 climate plans by the first quarter of 2015, ahead of the final negotiations for a post-2020 global pact late in the year. The White House statement said: “Together the US and China account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s joint announcement, the culmination of months of bilateral dialogue, highlights the critical role the two countries must play in addressing climate change. “The actions they announced are part of the longer range effort to achieve the deep decarbonisation of the global economy over time. These actions will also inject momentum into the global climate negotiations on the road to reaching a successful new climate agreement next year in Paris.”
Tao Wang, climate scholar at the Tsinghua-Carnegie Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said: “It is a very good sign for both countries and injects strong momentum [into negotiations] but the targets are not ambitious enough and there is room for both countries to negotiate an improvement.
“That figure isn’t high because China aims to reach about 15% by 2020, so it is only a five percentage point increase in 10 years, and given the huge growth in renewables it should be higher.”
Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, which promotes sustainable resource management, said the announcements would “inject a jolt of momentum in the lead up to a global climate agreement in Paris”.
“It’s a new day to have the leaders of the US and China stand shoulder to shoulder and make significant commitments to curb their country’s emissions,” he said.
Li Shuo, of Greenpeace East Asia, said the announcement showed that the world’s “two biggest emitters have come to the realisation that they are bound together and have to take actions together”.
At the Warsaw climate talks in 2013 nations were encouraged to draw up post-2020 climate plans by the first quarter of 2015, ahead of the final negotiations for a post-2020 global pact late in the year.
The White House statement said: “Together the US and China account for over one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s joint announcement, the culmination of months of bilateral dialogue, highlights the critical role the two countries must play in addressing climate change.
“The actions they announced are part of the longer range effort to achieve the deep decarbonisation of the global economy over time. These actions will also inject momentum into the global climate negotiations on the road to reaching a successful new climate agreement next year in Paris.”
It's been a long day here and I'm off to take a dinner break, but will be back later for comments.
Break out the non-GMO organic Champagne, this is worth toasting.
干杯
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