WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump was succinct final week when asked how the United States really should respond to climate alter.
“It’s not a large problem at all,” the leader in opinion polls for the Republican presidential nomination told a radio talk show host. “If you appear at China, they’re doing practically nothing about it.”
This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping came to Washington and agreed to take new measures.
Standing alongside President Barack Obama at the White House, the Chinese leader committed his country to a series of ambitious policies aimed at countering the rise in worldwide temperatures.
Xi mentioned China would introduce a national cap-and-trade program in 2017 that would limit carbon emissions across major industrial sectors, from electricity to iron and steel production.
He also pledged to match tougher U.S. fuel standards on heavy trucks planned for 2019, and committed $3.1 billion to assistance poor nations adapt to climate adjust.
“President Xi has lifted the final political excuse of inaction in Washington,” said Li Shuo, a campaigner for environmental group Greenpeace.
China’s help money matches a similar pledge made last year by Obama, even though the income has but to be delivered to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund since of Republican refusal to proper the funds.
REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstU.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) (L) adjusts a sign at the begin of a news conference led by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (3rd R, at lectern) to draw focus to climate transform at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, January 14, 2014.
Despite the joint announcement by Xi and Obama, some Republicans remained adamantly opposed to a climate deal.
“If the president was significant about reaching a substantive climate agreement, he would invest additional time functioning with Congress alternatively of establishing press releases with the Chinese government,” said Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. “These public pledges sound great but come with significant financial consequences for the United States.”
For his part, Trump has not created any public comments about the agreement since it was announced. He did not straight away respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday.
REUTERS/Gary CameronU.S. President Barack Obama faces a joint news conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Rose Garden at the White Property in Washington September 25, 2015.
The pledges mean that the world’s two largest carbon emitters have now aligned their climate diplomacy going into negotiations for a global accord in Paris this December.
It marks a lengthy evolution from the Kyoto climate talks in the 1990s, when China refused to sign any agreement that would limit carbon emissions. That position undermined support for the Kyoto agreement in the U.S. Congress, which refused to ratify it.
That sentiment remains sturdy amongst Republican lawmakers and some Democrats, who oppose U.S. measures to limit carbon emissions for the reason that, in component, China has been reluctant to do the same.
AP Photo/Andy WongBuses and automobiles are clogged with heavy visitors on the roads shrouded with haze pollution in Beijing on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015.
The result has been a standoff in between Obama and Congress that hit a nadir in 2010 when the Senate balked at passing the administration’s attempt to enact a national carbon market.
Now Xi says China will move ahead with just such a industry.
“The irony is wealthy: emissions trading is an American idea now it is come to be an American export,” stated David Sandalow, a fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Worldwide Power Policy and former under secretary of power for policy and international affairs.
AP Photo/Jason DeCrowAuthor Malachy McCourt, 83, of New York, awaits the get started of the People’s Climate March Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014 in New York.
Other components of the Chinese package reveal a comparable modify — in tone, at least.
China’s financial pledge is a “watershed moment” for climate diplomacy, environmental groups say, because it shows a willingness to share the billions of dollars believed needed to help poor nations shift to low-carbon economies and deal with the effects of a hotter planet.
China has extended observed itself as a building nation that is anticipated to be on the getting end of any international largesse.
Jake Schmidt, international policy director of the Organic Sources Defense Council, said this transform in attitude removes a frequent complaint about China from Congressional opponents.
“China is not going to be the recipient of U.S. climate financing, which is how some of our mates on the Hill are painting it,” said Schmidt. “This is a improved narrative.”
In fact, Obama is the far more most likely leader who will be forced to show up in Paris without the need of revenue. The 1st $500 million of the president’s $three billion pledge is held up in thorny budget negotiations on Capitol Hill, where some Republican lawmakers have vowed to block any international climate funding.
(Editing by Bruce Wallace and Ken Wills)
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