Come Together on Climate Change
It was heart-warming to hear former China-human-rights-basher, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, express in Beijing in June 2009, high hopes of co-operation between the United States and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, ahead of President Obama’s visit to China in November and of the 192-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December 2009. “We believe China and the United States can and must confront the challenge of climate change together…We have a responsibility to ourselves, to our country, to our people and to the world to work together on this.” Her change of tone exemplified how the two chefs can cook together instead of throwing boiling water at each other. Hopefully, the U.S. and China can lead their respective global constituencies to cook up a cooling climate recipe to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
In her meeting with China’s President Hu Jintao, he told her the differences between the two countries could be handled through dialogue and consultation, and that mutual efforts should be based “on equality and mutual respect.”
“I think this climate crisis is game changing for the U.S.-China relationship. It is an opportunity we cannot miss,” Speaker Pelosi said at the U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum. “I am very optimistic about the cooperation…as a great deal of work between us has been done,” Pelosi added.
Her optimism in Beijing was shared by Congressman Ed Markey, who co-sponsored the draft U.S. Waxman-Markey climate bill and chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He was “encouraged because of movement that was being made in a significant way in China on energy intensity, energy efficiency and fuel economy standards.” Hopefully the U.S. and China will sign that treaty that will propel the U.S. and China to explore new green recipes to create and cook clean green energy together.
“We are in the process of working on a deal the U.S. president will sign when he visits China in November,” Stan Barer, co-chair of the forum said.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who was in Beijing at the same time as Pelosi and Markey to attend the forum, after high level meetings in Beijing on energy co-operation, including scientific research, investment and technology transfer said: “I have been involved in this issue for 20 years… This has been the most constructive and productive discussions I’ve ever had with Chinese officials.”
Todd Stern, U.S. climate change chief negotiator, confirmed Kerry’s opinion at the conclusion of the U.N. climate conference in Bonn: “I think what China has already done ─ the 20 percent energy efficiency target for the current five-year plan, renewable energy and nuclear power targets ─ is all very impressive.”
The U.S. bill aims to cut green house gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, falling short of a European Union pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 20 percent from their 1990 levels by 2020 and boost renewable energy sources by 20 percent. In a position paper on the Copenhagen Conference, China urged developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. Let’s hope America and China can come together to lead the world through the pending global abyss.
In her meeting with China’s President Hu Jintao, he told her the differences between the two countries could be handled through dialogue and consultation, and that mutual efforts should be based “on equality and mutual respect.”
“I think this climate crisis is game changing for the U.S.-China relationship. It is an opportunity we cannot miss,” Speaker Pelosi said at the U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum. “I am very optimistic about the cooperation…as a great deal of work between us has been done,” Pelosi added.
Her optimism in Beijing was shared by Congressman Ed Markey, who co-sponsored the draft U.S. Waxman-Markey climate bill and chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He was “encouraged because of movement that was being made in a significant way in China on energy intensity, energy efficiency and fuel economy standards.” Hopefully the U.S. and China will sign that treaty that will propel the U.S. and China to explore new green recipes to create and cook clean green energy together.
“We are in the process of working on a deal the U.S. president will sign when he visits China in November,” Stan Barer, co-chair of the forum said.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who was in Beijing at the same time as Pelosi and Markey to attend the forum, after high level meetings in Beijing on energy co-operation, including scientific research, investment and technology transfer said: “I have been involved in this issue for 20 years… This has been the most constructive and productive discussions I’ve ever had with Chinese officials.”
Todd Stern, U.S. climate change chief negotiator, confirmed Kerry’s opinion at the conclusion of the U.N. climate conference in Bonn: “I think what China has already done ─ the 20 percent energy efficiency target for the current five-year plan, renewable energy and nuclear power targets ─ is all very impressive.”
The U.S. bill aims to cut green house gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, falling short of a European Union pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 20 percent from their 1990 levels by 2020 and boost renewable energy sources by 20 percent. In a position paper on the Copenhagen Conference, China urged developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels. Let’s hope America and China can come together to lead the world through the pending global abyss.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 12:24 AM
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