By Colleen Howe and David Stanway
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China hopes the United States will be able to work with other countries on climate change regardless of the outcome of next week’s presidential election, a senior government official said on Friday.
Cooperation between China and the United States, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, has helped broker major climate agreements, including the 2015 Paris Agreement.
But the re-election of former President Donald Trump could end bilateral climate engagement between the two sides, with Trump likely to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement for a second time.
“We expect the US to maintain the stability and consistency of its climate policy, and we hope the country can continue to cooperate with other countries in the world,” said Xia Yingxian, director general of the climate bureau of China’s Ministry of Environment, during a briefing.
With the COP29 climate talks set to start in 10 days in Baku, Azerbaijan, Xia told reporters he hoped the meeting would send a positive signal that “multilateralism cannot be reversed and international cooperation is indispensable.”
As part of their obligations under the Paris Agreement, countries must submit new and more ambitious ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) to the United Nations by February next year.
Washington has pressured Beijing to commit to a 30% emissions reduction by 2035, but experts have warned that US influence over climate diplomacy would be significantly eroded if Trump wins next week.
Xia told reporters that China will “firmly implement its NDCs” and said new targets for 2035 had already been proposed, but he gave no further details.
Although China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions “before 2030” and be carbon neutral by 2060, researchers say it is capable of greater ambitions, with CO2 emissions possibly already on the decline.
But while China has “made significant progress,” energy demand is still increasing and green trade barriers are holding back progress, warned Wen Hua, vice director of the environmental protection bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s planning agency.
“It should be noted that the goals of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality require heavy efforts,” he told Friday’s briefing.
Last month, an influential Chinese state think tank called on the government to set a target to cut absolute levels of CO2 emissions by 2035.
China’s Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) has also recommended that the government double its total wind and solar capacity to 2,400 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
