For nearly a year, talks between the planet’s two biggest polluters, China and the United States, have been suspended as the impacts of global warming have only grown more intense in the form of deadly heat, drought, floods and wildfires.
John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, is set to arrive in Beijing on Sunday to restart climate negotiations with the Chinese government.
The United States and China are the world’s biggest economies, the world’s biggest investors in renewable energy and, most critically, the world’s biggest fossil fuel polluters.
“There is no solution to climate change without China,” said David Sandalow, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations now at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
“The world’s two largest emitters should be talking to each other about this existential threat.”
Persons:
John Kerry, Biden’s, Xie Zhenhua, ”, David Sandalow, Clinton, Obama
Organizations:
Columbia University’s Center, Global Energy
Locations:
China, United States, Beijing