Tianjin, northeast of China, has become a kind of bubble city to welcome meetings between Chinese politicians and emissaries from foreign governments.
At a time of pandemic, when the Asian country has just overcome its worst outbreak in 2021, the authorities shield the country’s political center, Beijing, moving the bilateral meetings to another great city that is only 30 minutes by train from the capital.
In Tianjin he was in mid-July Wendy Sherman, Undersecretary of State of the United States.
Two days later, she landed a delegation of the Taliban, before the fall of Kabul, to talk about the future of Afghanistan with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi.
On Tuesday night, the former Secretary of State Debarak Obama, John Kerry, a current global envoy of President Joe Biden for climate change is received in Tianjin.
After a brief stop in Japan, where Kerry discussed the Japan country’s plan with Prime Minister for the Ecological Transition and the reduction of its emissions by 46% by 2030, he had to see face to face Chinese counterparts of
he.
It is not an easy time.
The relations between the United States and China go through its greatest crisis in years.
Many fronts have open.
From a commercial war, to complaints of human rights and technological disputes.
But if there is a land in which you can paddle together the two world powers, it is in climate cooperation.
The two actors sitting at the table have a lot to discuss.
China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world (representing 27% of global emissions in 2019), followed by the United States (11%).
Background and not too far away, there is the United Nations Conference on Climate Change that is celebrated in Glasgow in November.
There, the world leaders will try to agree on efforts to reduce emissions and money to help the poorest nations prepare for the effects of global warming.
And the singer voice will be taken by the two countries that pollute.
China and the US agree on the need for joint climate action, but they disagree in terms of the responsibility of each one.
Washington has asked Beijing to accelerate the gradual elimination of carbon use.
The latter will be complicated because in the five-year plan approved in March, the Chinese government said it would continue to be allowed, it will even grow, the consumption of coal, the main source of emissions.
Although they were excused that it will be compensated with a much greater investment in solar and wind energy.
As the New York Times points out in an article, the climate alteration signs this year (floods in China and Europe, droughts and fires in the west of the United States or the rains on top of an ice sheet in Greenland) have caused
That Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, are committed to reaching a joint cooperation agreement despite all the problems that go through their governments.
The two senior officials would have talked about twenty times in what we have of the year.
During his stay in China, Kerry has shared impressions with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zheng, who moved his desire for both countries to start the commitments of the Paris Agreement.
The American also spoke by videoconference on Thursday with Minister Wang Yi, who warned the interlocutor of him that the deterioration of relations between the United States and China could undermine cooperation between the two on climate change.
“The American Party wants to convert climate cooperation into an oasis in relations between China and the United States. But if the oasis is surrounded by desert, it will soon dry,” said Wang, who took advantage to expose Beijing positions, not only about
Climate change, but also warning that the United States “should stop seeing China as a threat and an opponent, and stop besieging and suppressing China around the world.”
Kerry replied: “Given science and what is happening, we are all going to deal with this for the rest of our lives. Ejste challenge is as big as anyone who will face worldwide. And China plays a very critical role.”
According to the US Department of State, Kerry took advantage of the meeting with Wang to ask China to do more to reduce its emissions.
“The world can not solve the problem of global warming without China’s total commitment, which must comply with a responsibility in accordance with its status,” said Kerry.
The United States continues to press the Asian country to take more climate actions before the UN Conference, which expects countries to reduce emissions over the next decade and reach zero carbon net emissions to limit global warming 1,
5 degrees celsius.
The president of China, Xi Jinping, promised to reach the top of carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve neutrality in its emissions in 2060. The objective of generating 20% of the total energy consumption of the country has also been set
from renewable energies for 2025. These purposes, launched during the UN General Assembly last year, XI defined them as the “Green Revolution of China”.
