Just a few short hours prior to the meeting between President Biden and President Xi, Beijing and Washington issued a joint statement promising to enhance cooperation in the fight against climate change, following over a year of silent treatment from China regarding climate cooperation. Negotiations re-opened, however, when the Chinese and U.S. Envoys for Climate — Xie Zhenhua and John Kerry — met in Beijing in July of 2023, and then once more in San Francisco that November. This came at a crucial time for global climate cooperation, as it was two weeks before the UN Climate Change Convention in Dubai (COP 28), which was not only the largest of its kind, but also the first climate convention in which true assessments of the Paris Climate Agreement’s success could be made. On one hand, the resumption of climate negotiations between the two largest economies in the world may usher in a new era of the fight against global climate change; one where global cooperation triumphs over political differences. On the other hand, the agreements made between Washington and Beijing were, like most other climate agreements, non-binding and difficult to enforce.

 

Cooperation between China and the United States surrounding global climate change is vital for significant progress to be made. In addition to being the two most influential countries in the world, China and the U.S. are the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses by a wide margin, contributing to a combined 39.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This gives the two nations an outsized role as leaders in the fight against climate change. As David Waskow, the International Climate Director at the World Resources Institute described it, “the United States and China have a unique responsibility to accelerate climate action at home and bring all countries together to find common ground.” For years, climate cooperation was one of the highlights of U.S.-China relations, culminating in 2014 when the two nations built the foundations of what would become the Paris Climate Agreement, the most important accord of its kind. However, as political relations between the two strained as a result of the trade war under U.S. President Trump and expansionist tendencies on the part of Beijing, so too did their collaborative efforts toward fighting climate change. This culminated in the complete cessation of climate-oriented negotiations between the two as a result of former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022. 

 

For a while, it seemed as if the golden age of U.S.-China climate cooperation was in the past, as hostilities between the two nations continued to increase. However, hope was restored when John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the climate ambassadors for the U.S. and China, respectively, held two rounds of negotiations in July and November of 2023. The sum of the agreements reached during these negotiations was released as a joint statement by the U.S. and Chinese governments less than a day before President Biden and President Xi were scheduled to meet in San Francisco. Because of this, the agreements on climate are lumped together with the agreements made during the summit. 

 

The joint statement hits on several key aspects of emissions reduction as well as promises of further cooperation between China and the United States regarding climate issues. Much of the statement prioritized the transition to renewable sources of energy in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. To accomplish this, the countries reinforced their commitment to a previous agreement promising to triple renewable energy production by 2030. Additionally, the statement focused on making efforts to bring greater awareness to the reduction of methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. While CO2 gets most of the attention when it comes to greenhouse gasses, methane has a disproportionate effect on global climate change. In fact, a unit of atmospheric methane is 80 times as potent, or environmentally damaging, as a unit of atmospheric CO2, in some cases. Previous climate goals set by China never addressed methane emissions, but the joint statement stated that both countries would cooperate on creating measures for methane emissions, including the creation of a Methane and Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases Summit at COP 28. Lastly, the two countries agreed to maintain their climate goals in the Paris Climate Agreement as well as encourage other countries to do the same. 

 

Overall, the climate agreements made by the two countries appear to be a success in an otherwise tense relationship between the two superpowers. Attention was brought to important issues, collaborative goals were set, and continued climate-related cooperation between Washington and Beijing seems likely. Perhaps this could even be a medium by which the two countries increase cooperation on other issues, giving this agreement far more potential benefits other than just emissions reductions. However, there is still far more progress to be made, and recent history has taught us that agreements between the United States and China aren’t always permanent. Firstly, as is the case with many other climate agreements, there aren’t many enforcement measures to uphold promises made by countries to reduce emissions. While the non-binding Paris Climate Agreement has shown initial signs of success, there still remains the issue of the agreements being unenforceable. In addition, from a geo-political perspective, the fragility of the U.S.-China relationship may mean that these climate agreements won’t last. We’ve already seen how political tensions can negatively affect climate cooperation between Beijing and Washington, and it’s very possible that something similar could occur. Moreover, if former President Donald Trump were to be re-elected in 2024, it is likely that US-China relations would sour once again, as well as U.S. commitments to climate agreements, as we saw with the first Trump term. While this may be the case, the agreements made by the United States and China are certainly significant for the fight against global climate change and have the potential to create a revitalized initiative to reduce emissions around the world. 

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April, 2024