In what should be called a landmark political achievement on environment conservation and climate in contemporary United States/China history, the recent deal between these two countries promises to be a new ray of hope for the ever-evolving Sino-U.S. relationship.
The deal is simple. Both countries will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions marginally in the coming years. The deadline set is 2030. Additionally, China also promises 20 percent of its energy will be produced by fossil fuels. Currently, the U.S. and China are the world’s largest polluters by a huge margin, India comes in third, and this deal to reduce these harmful carbon emissions is a positive step forward.
This is a crucial time in American politics; you have a lame duck president with an opposing Senate and House. Anything he does right now will be tedious and hard to capitalize on, which we have seen with immigration, among other laws.
Republicans seem to be pretty unhappy with what President Obama is doing in Australia, where he attended the G20 Summit. Mitch McConnell, a realistic contender for presidency in 2016 from the Republican party expressed his concern.
“The President continues to send a signal that he has no intention of moving toward the middle,” McConnell said. “I was particularly distressed by the deal he’s reached with the Chinese on his current trip, which, as I read the agreement, it requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years, while these carbon emission regulations are creating havoc in my state and other states across the country.”
If you look at it, this may be true. With the enormous growth in China, including a strong surge of infrastructural and industrial development, China is one of the prime players in pollution. Now is the time where China is looking to flex its muscles in production and economic growth once again as it has in the past. Current President of China, Xi Jinping, faces tremendous pressure to revive the recent drop in the Chinese GDP.
This deal has built a growing pressure to act against it in countries like India, Germany and Japan. India, in particular, faces the most heat after this deal. The global eyes are now turned to India to come up with a plan to counter any environmental degradations.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, India’s per capita carbon emissions are at 1.9 tons per year compared to China’s 7.2 tons. An official in the Indian government said, “India’s emissions are four times lower than China’s, if America is OK with the 2030 date for China, we can think about 2050 or even after that.”
The report conclusively described India’s position and said India will try to isolate itself from the global conference next year on climate change. The nation of 1.25 billion people will try to explain its difference from China in terms of pollution and carbon emissions.
Realistically talking about this deal, China will have to work in more ways than one to achieve this target by 2030. If you think about it, China will have to take a lot of cars off the road or replace them with environmentally-friendly cars, transport will have to be revamped, industries have to be recycled and shut down — a step next to impossible for a country that survives on economy and industrial growth.
For now, let us appreciate China is at least thinking about cutting back carbon emissions by 2030 and is showing commitment toward it. And as for our president, well, it just highlights the power of a democratic system. When you do not have Congress and the Senate standing by your side, it is tough to pursue anything as the head of even a world hegemon.
