The U.S. and China announce a breakthrough deal to reduce both nations’ environmental impact
The U.S. and China announce a breakthrough deal to reduce both nations’ environmental impact
President Barack Obama, left, and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands after a news conference in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, November 12.
President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping announced a breakthrough climate change deal on Wednesday. The deal aims to reduce both nations’ enormous carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
During a press conference in Beijing, China, President Obama called the deal a historic agreement. "As the world's two largest economies, energy consumers, and emitters of greenhouse gases, we have a special responsibility to lead the global effort against climate change," Obama said.
Under the deal, the U.S. must cut carbon emission levels significantly by 2025. Carbon emission is the release of carbon dioxide gas through human activity. China must start reigning in its release of greenhouse gases nationwide and level off its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030.
Burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil sends huge amounts of polluting greenhouse gases, including CO2, into the air. China has long relied on coal to provide energy during its extraordinary economic growth. The nation promised to quickly increase China’s reliance on non-fossil fuels in energy consumption. By 2030, Beijing aims to have 20% of the country’s energy needs supplied by sources that produce no emissions.
Challenges Ahead
Reaching these goals will not be easy. To hit these targets, experts say that both nations must now draw up and enforce unprecedented policies.
Sam Roggeveen, of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia, published a blog post about the deal on Wednesday. He pointed out that the U.S. will have to “double the pace of its carbon pollution reduction to meet the new target.”
Roggeveen also wrote that China must put to use “an additional 800-1,000 gigawatts” of zero-emission sources like nuclear, wind, and solar energy by 2030. That’s more than all the coal-fired power plants that exist in China today.
Even if China’s central government focuses to achieve this, economists say local government officials are critical to carrying out policies. Central governments must provide the proper economic incentives—something that encourages a person to do something—to local officials. “If the local bureaucrats resist, then nothing can be done,” Xu Chenggang, a professor who is a specialist in China’s economic development at the University of Hong Kong, told TIME. “[It doesn’t] matter how strong the leader is, to get things done really depends on incentives.”
Activists say the world’s two largest emitters of CO2 have yet to fully follow through. Still, others are hopeful that the historic announcement today will kick-start the push to lower greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide.