US-China summit in Alaska shows road to fighting climate change is paved with political minefields
- Is it possible for diplomats on the one hand to fervently criticise their counterparts and on the other hand, drop the animosity when it comes to dealing with climate change?
The world needs more diplomacy and less chest-beating.
The UK will play host to the UN conference in Glasgow on climate change in November, referred to as COP26. As the host country, the UK’s role includes rallying others to follow the Paris Agreement, a multilateral treaty on climate change agreed to in 2015.
Thankfully, ministers from the EU, Canada and China did co-convene their annual gathering on climate change on March 23, a trilateral arrangement they started in 2017 to show their commitment to the Paris Agreement.
Both men are exceptionally well-placed to help their countries and the world on climate change policies. They both have long histories working on an issue they are personally knowledgeable and passionate about, they know their respective domestic politics intimately, they understand the international stage, they are well acquainted with counterparts from other countries and the UN system, and they are both trusted by their bosses and respected by all.
They should know where the political minefields are and how to avoid them – they had done it before. However, the situation is more complex and challenging today than in the past when they cooperated and built a strong relationship with each other.
Today, the US political establishment sees China as a major disrupter globally because it views China as the only country with the economic, military and technological clout to seriously challenge American leadership. The current US secretary of state said the country wants “the techno-democracies” – the advanced economies and allies – to band together to confront China.
Many assume and hope that these conflicts won’t get in the way of climate cooperation. Is it possible for diplomats on the one hand to fervently criticise their counterparts and on the other hand, drop the animosity when it comes to dealing with climate change?
Is optimism over US-China climate change cooperation misplaced?
The US, as host, opened fire by accusing China of being a threat to global stability, putting economic pressure on US allies, perpetrating cyberattacks and repressing Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan. China punched back by accusing the US of causing turmoil in many places around the world, holding on to a cold war mentality and not dealing with its own human rights problems, and said it had no right to interfere with China’s sovereign decisions on its own territories.
Most countries, especially emerging economies in Asia, don’t really want to get tangled up in great-power competition. They want socioeconomic development, to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic sooner rather than later, and work on problems like climate change. They want to see the big powers cooperate.
The developed countries industrialised early, partly by way of brutal colonialism, to gain natural resources to power their high-carbon economies. Finger-pointing was not what got the nations of the world to sign the Paris Agreement. It was optimism about ongoing cooperation that did.
Christine Loh, a former undersecretary for the environment, is an adjunct professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology