The United States and China Take Action on the Climate Crisis

The United Nations recently called out the Paris Climate Agreement member states for failing to abide by the climate goals drafted seven years ago. In preparation for the upcoming COP28 Conference, the United Nations released its Global Stocktake report, pressuring states to prepare advised climate plans in the weeks leading up to the conference.

The United Nations' evaluation of the progress of the Paris Climate Agreement was not a gentle nudge for states to make improvements. This grim report was an urgent call for completely revised climate plans and rededication to reducing emissions. 

Key findings from the report confirmed that the world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and that urgent, dramatic measures are needed to outrace the narrowing gap of time out before the earth has warmed to the point of catastrophe. 

There is no measure more dramatic than the world’s leading polluters, China and the United States, agreeing to a series of meetings in Rancho Mirage, California, this week. The rival powers tasked John Kerry, the US climate envoy, and Xie Zhenhua, a former Chinese environment minister, to discuss potential coordination on increasing their use of clean energy and sending aid to help developing nations transfer to green energy. 

However, for China and the United States to discuss necessary measures on climate change is both a political and an economic minefield. 

The United States is politically cautious to take any action seen as being soft on China. The upcoming presidential election is a cause for hesitancy in the Biden administration, as any partnership with China is likely to receive mass scrutiny. Tensions between the two states are strained as Taiwanese politics remain a potential fuse likely to blow up any cooperative acts planned across the Pacific. 

Waiting for the upcoming COP28 conference, states across the globe are holding their breath for any action taken by China or the United States. 

Progress in the climate agreement is dependent upon the commitment of both states to renew their commitment to clean energy. Signals from either state will determine the aggressiveness of other countries’ climate action plans. 

The world is on fire, but is that enough for these new-age rivals to cooperate?