[China Net Review] Sino-US cooperation helps solve the global climate governance dilemma

　　China network commentator Le Shui

　　On November 30th, local time, the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. More than 70,000 people are expected to attend the conference, including political leaders, climate negotiators and entrepreneurs from 167 countries. Even the Vatican Pope Francis and King Charles of England will attend the conference in Dubai. COP28 will be the largest United Nations Climate Change Conference in history.

　　The world’s attention to COP28 is naturally inseparable from the growing global climate crisis. In recent years, the global average temperature is rising rapidly with the naked eye. Statistics released by the World Meteorological Organization show that from January to September this year, the global average temperature was 1.4℃ higher than the pre-industrial level, and the temperature increase in individual months has exceeded the threshold of 1.5℃. The drastic changes in global climate have led to frequent natural disasters around the world, and at the same time, it has further enhanced the urgency of deepening climate cooperation among countries.

　　The Paris Agreement reached in 2015 put forward the goal of keeping the global warming within 1.5℃ above the pre-industrial level in this century. Since then, successive United Nations climate change conferences have focused on how to implement the Paris Agreement. However, at present, its progress is not satisfactory. In August this year, Berkeley Earth, a Swiss non-profit climate monitoring organization, predicted that in 2023, the possibility of global average temperature rising by 1.5℃ was 55%. The worsening climate crisis has warned all countries that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is imminent. Therefore, COP28 will make the first global inventory of the overall implementation of the Paris Agreement, so as to strive to form new climate response actions.

　　Behind the slow progress of global climate governance is the difficulty of building consensus, especially there are still many differences between developed and developing countries on the distribution of climate governance responsibilities. The vast number of developing countries, represented by China, advocate "common but differentiated responsibilities", requiring developed countries to take the lead in reducing emissions and provide financial and technical support to developing countries, so as to assume due responsibilities for their historical carbon emissions. However, the developed countries, led by the United States, unilaterally emphasize the "commonality" of emission reduction responsibilities of all countries, ignoring the "difference", in an attempt to put developed countries and developing countries under the same emission reduction standards in order to escape their historical carbon emission responsibilities. As the largest developing country and developed country in the world, dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States are essential to promote the smooth progress of global climate governance. Unfortunately, in recent years, with the intensification of the game between China and the United States, the relationship between the two countries once fell into the freezing point since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and last year, the climate dialogue between the two sides was also suspended due to the farce of "crossing Taiwan" in Impey.

　　The issue of climate change is the most potential area of cooperation between China and the United States, and it is also widely regarded as a breakthrough to promote the icebreaking and recovery of Sino-US relations. Therefore, the turn of Sino-US relations often becomes an important opportunity to promote the progress of global climate governance. On November 14th, 2022, when the Supreme Leader of president, China and US President Biden met in Bali, both sides agreed to resume the Sino-US climate negotiations. Shortly thereafter, the deadlocked 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference immediately made a substantive breakthrough — — An agreement was reached on the establishment of a "loss and damage" fund mechanism. The "loss and damage" fund aims to help developing countries and fragile countries that are vulnerable to climate change. The establishment of this fund marks a key step for mankind to achieve "climate justice".

　　This year, COP28 will further discuss the source, location and operation right of the "loss and damage" fund. In addition, COP28 will also discuss the elimination of fossil fuels, climate financing and other important issues. Judging from the information released by all parties before the meeting, developed countries expect to urge countries to reduce the use of fossil energy and accelerate energy transformation at the meeting, while developing countries put more emphasis on getting more funds for energy transformation, and advocate that coping with climate change should be coordinated with economic development goals such as poverty eradication and job creation. It can be seen that the meeting process will not be smooth sailing, and all parties attending the meeting will definitely launch a fierce debate and game around energy transformation and climate financing.

　　However, the recent increasingly close cooperation between China and the United States on the issue of climate change makes people look forward to COP28. On November 15th, Chairman of the Supreme Leader and President Biden met in San Francisco and jointly stated that they would make efforts to promote the success of COP28. On the same day, China and the United States issued the "Statement on Strengthening Cooperation to Respond to the Climate Crisis", and decided to launch the "Working Group on Strengthening Climate Action in the 1920s" between China and the United States to accelerate concrete climate actions. The statement also discussed the important issues of COP28 in many aspects. In terms of energy transformation, China and the United States promised to "strive to triple the global renewable energy by 2030"; With regard to climate financing, China and the United States reiterated their urging to developed country Parties to at least double their adaptation funds, and supported the financial arrangement of the Transitional Committee to establish a "loss and damage" fund.

　　This series of consensus reached by China and the United States before the meeting indicates that COP28 may achieve important results that are unexpected to the outside world. Jaber, chairman of the COP28 meeting, also said in an interview with the media a few days ago that he was happy and encouraged by the consensus between China and the United States, and believed that China and the United States would ensure the success of COP28 through cooperation.

　　It is urgent to solve the dilemma of global climate governance. As the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States are also the largest energy consumers and carbon emitters. They shoulder a common mission in dealing with climate change and should set an example for the international community and form a joint force to benefit the world. Solving the crisis of human society is inseparable from the cooperation of big countries. The positive signals released by China and the United States in climate cooperation will undoubtedly inject strong confidence into mankind’s joint efforts to cope with more global challenges.

　　Editor: Cai Xiaojuan, Zhang Yanling, Tang Hua