Washington D.C./Beijing: As the United States of America engaged in intensive diplomacy and partnership with countries around the world, collective action increased global ambition, innovation and action to tackle the climate crisis, the White House has emphasised.
The Earth Summit also saw a surprise in Beijing and Washington reaching and releasing the China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, which they claimed “contributed to the success of COP26”.
In the joint declaration, for the first time Beijing committed to address emmissions from Methane also. Before the Glasgow summit, China also announced a “1+N” policy framework for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and released a white paper titled “Responding to Climate Change: China’s Policies and Actions“. It also officially submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and strategy for low emissions in the medium and long term. “These are all specific measures of China’s implementation of the Paris Agreement, and show China’s responsibility in and latest contribution to global climate change response,” its foreign ministry claimed.
It may be mentioned that the USA and China are the two major polluters and their role is crucial in tackling the climate change issue.
While the COP26 was in progress, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a circular in Beijing on November 7, 2021, pledging that by 2025, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the country’s GDP will be reduced by 18 percent from the level in 2020. In cities at or above the prefectural level, the intensity of PM 2.5 will be decreased by 10 percent, and the proportion of days with good air quality will reach 87.5 percent.
China further today termed the Glasgow Climate Pact as “a relatively balanced political outcome document”, and noted over 50 resolutions were adopted at COP26. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told mediapersons in Beijing today: “The conference upheld multilateralism, reaffirmed the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and adhered to the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and bottom-up approach. It maintained the stability of international rules and further build international consensus in promoting low-carbon energy transition. This conference will have a positive impact on global climate governance and green, low-carbon and sustainable development going forward. However, as developed countries have not fully responded to the core concerns of developing countries such as adaptation, financing and technical support, there were regrets and deficiencies at the session, and the global response to climate change still faces many challenges.”
At the close of COP26, the USA stated that it will continue to push for action beyond Glasgow and keep 1.5 degrees Celsius goal alive. In the process it claimed the following takeaways from the Earth Summit, attributing them to its “renewed leadership” in Glasgow:
- 90% of the world’s GDP now has net zero commitments and 154 countries put forward new climate action plans to cut emissions or “NDCs”. In April, President Biden announced a new target for the United States to achieve a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution in 2030 and convened the Leaders Summit on Climate to secure stronger targets from world leaders.
- The United States and European Union announced that over 100 countries, covering nearly half of global methane emissions and almost 70% of global GDP signed the Global Methane Pledge, including six of the world’s top 10 methane emitters. This complements the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan – bold steps announced by President Biden to redouble efforts from across the government to dramatically reduce U.S. methane emissions, cut consumer costs, protect workers and communities, maintain and create thousands of high-quality, union jobs, and promote U.S. innovation and manufacturing of critical new technologies.
- Developed countries made progress towards the $100 billion climate finance mobilization goal. In April, President Biden has released the first-ever U.S. International Climate Finance Plan and announced a quadrupling of the U.S. international climate finance pledge at the UN General Assembly in September, including the largest U.S. commitment ever made to reduce climate impacts on those most vulnerable to climate change worldwide.
- The U.S. announced our first-ever contribution to the Adaptation Fund which at COP26 received $356 million in new support from contributing national and regional governments. President Biden announced the launch of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a whole-of-government initiative that will serve as the cornerstone of the U.S. Government response to addressing the increasing impacts of the global climate crises in order to enhance global stability.
- Twenty-five countries, including the United States, and five financial institutions pledged to end new international finance for unabated fossil fuel energy by the end of 2022, except in limited and clearly defined circumstances that are consistent with the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit, reorienting tens of billions of dollars of public finance and trillions of private finance towards low carbon priorities.
- Over $20 billion of new public and philanthropic finance has been committed to support developing countries to transition away from coal.
- Countries representing 90% of global forest cover pledged to reduce deforestation to zero by 2030, backed by the biggest ever commitment of public funds for forest conservation and a global roadmap to make 75% of forest commodity supply chains sustainable. Twelve countries signed the Global Forest Finance Pledge: a target of $12 billion to combat deforestation. The United States released the Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks, a first-of-its-kind, whole-of-government effort to preserve global ecosystems which serve as vital carbon sinks.
- The United States launched the First Movers Coalition with more than 25 Founding Members including some of the largest companies in the world, across a wide range of industries, with hundreds of billions of dollars in purchasing power. The buyers’ clubs assembled by this initiative will create early market demand for innovations across eight “need-to-abate” sectors—steel, trucking, shipping, aviation, aluminum, concrete, chemicals, and direct air capture—which represent more than one-third of the world’s carbon emissions today, and is expected to grow in the coming decades.
- China joined the United States, the world’s two biggest economies and emitters, in committing in a new Joint Declaration to collaborate on increased ambition to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius warming within reach, and China for the first time committed to develop a plan to address methane emissions and accelerate its coal phase-down.
- The United States, UK, EU, France, and Germany announced a partnership with South Africa to chart a course from coal to clean energy through the creation of new jobs and opportunities for South African coal communities. This partnership will seek to prevent up to 1-1.5 gigatons of emissions over the next 20 years in support of South Africa’s accelerated transition to a low emission, climate resilient economy, and aims to mobilize $8.5 billion for the first phase of financing, through various mechanisms including grants, concessional loans, investments, risk sharing, and other instruments for private sector mobilization. This partnership comes as the United States continues to redouble efforts to invest in our nation’s energy communities, including delivering the largest investment in American history to tackle legacy pollution while creating thousands of new good paying jobs as part of the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal.
- The United States and the United Arab Emirates launched the Agricultural Innovation Mission alongside more than 30 countries and more than 45 non-government partners to increase and accelerate agricultural and food systems innovation in support of climate action. The initiative has already garnered an $4 billion in increased investment in climate smart agriculture and food systems innovation, with the United States planning to mobilize $1 billion over five years.
As for China, it vowed to honour its commitments and step up efforts to peak carbon emissions. In Beijing, it declared that through such means as establishing a system to control the total volume of CO2 emissions, setting up and improving a carbon trading market and strengthening control of emissions of methane and other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, “China has been earnestly implementing its objectives of nationally determined contributions by 2030 and making its contributions to global climate change response”. Lijiang said today, looking ahead, China will continue to actively promote international cooperation on climate change, push for the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, build a fair, reasonable and win-win global climate governance system, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
– global bihari bureau
