China is urging the United States to do more in the global fight against climate change. In particular, China wants the other country to help poor and developing nations in their own climate change initiatives and ensure that the 2015 Paris greenhouse gas agreement is enforced.
According to Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese climate change special representative, the U.S. can share technologies to these poorer nations and help fund the other countries' climate change initiatives as well as efforts to curb extreme weather events.
"I believe the U.S. government can do better. As the largest developed country in the world, the U.S. has done a lot in climate change and needs to be recognized. But at the same time, of course, there [is] a lot more work to do," added Xie.
Back in 2010, the two countries failed to reach an agreement on how to handle the climate change. But U.S. President Barack Obama and Xie eventually helped push the climate change dialogues toward the United Nations level.
This led to the 2015 Paris climate change agreement wherein over 190 countries pledged to reduce their respective emissions of fossil fuel. In the Paris agreement, the countries also vowed to take quantifiable steps to prevent the dire consequences of both global warming and climate change.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that the key is to ensure that the participating countries bring the Paris agreement into force this year.
For their part, the U.S. government pledged to lower their heat-trapping pollution by 26 percent to 28 percent in 2025 from 2005 levels.
On the other hand, China vowed that their emissions would cease growing by 2030. Chinese leaders said that they need more time to turn away from fossil fuels due to their growing economies, a sentiment shared by many leaders of poorer and developing nations.
However, the Paris agreement lacked details on how countries will shoulder the finances for the outlined initiatives. Xie's recent comment toward the U.S. can be seen as China's role as a likely champion for poor and developing nations that need help on the finance side.
But the U.S. and China have the biggest carbon emission levels in the world. As one of the world's biggest carbon-emission nations, China's added pressure to the U.S. may seem ill-placed.
China is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, and over 75 percent of the country's energy consumption is highly dependent on coal.
Photo: Will Clayton | Flickr
