US president Joe Biden has told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that he hoped to have a candid conversation about human rights and security issues as the two began a meeting meant to lower tensions between the two global superpowers. Biden added that the two leaders must make sure their relations do not veer into open conflict, including by installing ‘common sense’ guardrails. Biden spoke with Xi over a video conference as the two leaders engaged in their most extensive talks since Biden became president in January. Xi said the two sides must increase communication and…
Tag: Climate crisis
The US-China climate agreement is imperfect – but reason to hope | Sam Geall
It could have been so much worse. At this critical juncture, talks between the world’s two carbon superpowers – together accounting for some 40% of global greenhouse-gas emissions – could easily have collapsed into a blame game, and a standoff that would have seriously set back global efforts. Instead, the surprise China-US agreement announced on Wednesday night offers renewed hope for joint leadership at last. After the bruising years of the Donald Trump presidency, and the impact of Covid-19 on the negotiations themselves and those poor countries most vulnerable to…
‘It’s alarming’: intense rainfall and extreme weather become the norm in northern China
The unusual rains began to fall in Shanxi on 3 October, and the torrential downpours lasted for three days. According to Chinese media, the 59 observatories across Shanxi province all recorded historic levels of rain. According to the local weather bureau, the average rain in the province reached 120mm (4.7 in) between 2 and 7 October. The average rainfall across the US over a whole month is 71mm. But when the rain finally stopped more news began to emerge about the damage it had caused. A week later, the Communist…
Scott Morrison tells Cop26 Australia will exceed 2030 target in bid to fend off criticism
Scott Morrison has used his national statement at the Cop26 to emphasise that Australia will probably overachieve on its 2030 emissions reduction target in an effort to blunt international criticism about his government’s lack of climate ambition. While the lead-up to the Glasgow summit was dominated by Morrison’s negotiations with the National party to land a net zero commitment by 2050, the UN-led event is focused on ambition for the 2030s. Australia – part of a bloc of big emitters and exporters at last weekend’s G20 summit in Rome attempting…
‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26
World leaders have been warned that Cop26 must “mark the beginning of the end of climate change” amid last-minute talks that could help determine the future of the planet. With the long-awaited environmental summit due to start on Monday, Boris Johnson issued his plea while saying “too many countries are still doing too little”. Speaking en route to Italy to meet other prime ministers and presidents from the G20 group of industrialised nations, Johnson said that without action the modern world could suffer the same fate as the Roman empire…
Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend Cop26 by video link
China’s president, Xi Jinping, will appear at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow next week via video link, the country’s foreign ministry has said, after weeks of speculation over what role Xi might play in the meeting, which opens on Sunday. Xi has not left China since last year, when his country was first engulfed in the deadly Covid outbreak. The foreign ministry said on Friday that Xi would take part in this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit in Rome via video link as well. Beijing published its long-awaited national…
China’s new climate plan falls short of Cop26 global heating goal, experts say
China has published its long-awaited national plan on greenhouse gas emissions, just days before the opening of the Cop26 UN climate summit. However, the plan revealed on Thursday represents little progress on the previously announced ambitions of the world’s biggest carbon emitter, disappointing observers of the vital climate talks. Emissions would peak by 2030 and be reduced to net zero three decades later, according to the nationally determined contribution (NDC) submitted to the UN. This is widely regarded as too late to ensure the world limits global heating to 1.5C…
China will honour its climate pledges – look at the changes we have already made | Zheng Zeguang
In the run-up to the climate conference in Glasgow, there are suggestions that without real participation and greater contribution from China, neither the conference nor the global response to climate change will get anywhere. The unstated worry is this: will China honour its pledges to reduce emissions? This anxiety is unnecessary. Anyone who knows China well is sure that my country is serious about reducing carbon emissions and pursuing green development, and that we mean what we say. In China, it is already a national consensus that “lucid waters and…
‘Ecological civilisation’: an empty slogan or will China act on the environment?
This week, China took charge of hosting a major UN environmental conference for the first time, at the opening of Cop15 in Kunming. The world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter and largest consumer of natural resources might seem a strange choice to host talks to stop the destruction of ecosystems and mass extinctions of wildlife, but the conference marks a tipping point in China’s development and an international debut for “ecological civilisation”, a little-known phrase outside its borders with big implications for the planet. Amid uncertainty around whether President Xi Jinping…