What a US-China climate deal means for COP28

Subject : Environment

Section: International conventions

Context:

The United States and China announced an agreement to sharply increase clean energy, displace fossil fuels and reduce emissions that are warming the planet.

About the deal:

The United States is the biggest climate polluter in history, and China is currently the largest polluter. Together, they account for 38% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
The countries agreed to “pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030,” with the intention “to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation.”
Both countries anticipate that they will achieve “meaningful absolute power sector emission reduction” this decade.
Both countries agreed that in their next set of national climate pledges, they would set reduction targets for all greenhouse gas emissions — not just carbon dioxide but also methane, nitrous oxide and other planet-warming gases.
China has agreed in principle to cut methane, which was absent in its earlier pledges during the Paris Agreement 2015. Also, China is the world’s largest methane emitter.

Criticism of the deal:

The deal does not include any promises by China to phase out its use of coal or to stop issuing permits for new coal plants and building them.
There is no mention of an ‘enforcement mechanism’ in the deal.

E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism):

Established in 2004.
E3G is an independent climate change think tank with a global outlook.
They work on the frontier of the climate landscape tackling the barriers and advancing the solutions to a safe climate.
Their goal is to translate climate politics, economics and policies into action.
Based in Brussels, Berlin, London and Washington, D.C..