U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Tuesday he “hopes” the U.S. and China will “come together” for future negotiations against global warming, during a press conference at the first African Climate Summit.
Sino-American rapprochement crucial to the fight against climate change
“I hope that China and the United States, the world’s two biggest economies, the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, I hope that we can come closer together,” he said in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where the continental summit is being held.
In relations between the two countries, “we are looking for areas where it might be appropriate to cooperate, but it’s not cooperation at any price”, explained John Kerry.
“It’s a cooperation (…) because there’s a reason to be able to cooperate so that together we can have an impact on things.”
“Our hope is that climate will be recognized for what it is”, he continued, stressing that this is not a “bilateral issue, nor a simple dispute between the United States and China like there are on other subjects”.
“It’s a universal threat to the planet,” he insisted.
In an interview with AFP on Monday, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fathih Birol, urged the United States and China to set aside “their geopolitical and economic tensions” at the forthcoming UN climate conference (COP28), believing they were holding back the development of clean energies. COP28, scheduled to take place between late November and early December in Dubai, is likely to give rise to fierce opposition on the issue of the end of fossil fuels.
Why does it matter?
This attempt to bring the USA and China closer together in the fight against global warming is of crucial importance on several levels. First of all, these two nations are among the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, which means that their cooperation is essential if we are to meet global targets for reducing emissions.
What’s more, climate change is a global threat that transcends national borders, and effective collaboration between the USA and China can have a significant impact on limiting environmental damage.
Finally, calls to set aside geopolitical and economic tensions to focus on the climate crisis underscore the urgency of the situation. Delays in the transition to cleaner energy can have serious consequences for the planet and the global economy.
In short, cooperation between the USA and China in the fight against climate change is crucial to the planet’s well-being, global economic stability and the achievement of global climate goals.
