Opinion: Hold China to account on climate agreement
Red Jahncke
FacebookTwitterEmail
John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, speaks during a news conference at the White House in January.File photo
Recently, John Kerry traveled to Shanghai to talk climate change with Chinese counterparts. Afterward, a joint communique committed to fight climate change “with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.” On Earth Day, President Biden opened a virtual world summit on climate with an announcement that the U.S. would halve our emissions by 2030.
Recall that, upon his inauguration, Biden issued a flurry of executive orders related to climate change, including one designating climate change a national security threat, one rejoining the Paris Accord, another halting the Keystone XL pipeline and yet another freezing petroleum leases and permits on federal land for 60 days. Lots of drama and aspiration.
Published April 14. 2021 5:38PM
Red Jahncke
Upon his inauguration, President Biden issued a flurry of executive orders related to climate change, including one designating climate change a national security threat, one rejoining the Paris Accord, another halting the Keystone XL pipeline and yet another freezing petroleum leases and permits on federal land for 60 days.
The primary security threat by this new climate-change name looks the same as the leading national security threat in traditional terms: China. The totalitarian Communist dictatorship is responsible for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EDGAR database.
China’s emissions are not only the world’s most, but they are increasing every year. U.S. emissions are about half as much and have been decreasing for over a decade. Half again lower is India, whose emissions account for about 7%.
Not just climate adaptation, but genuine transformation
The Australian government has been in the news this month for two seemingly contradictory policy responses to climate change. First, on 26 January, the Hon Sussan Ley, Minister for the Environment, attended the (first of its kind) Global Climate Adaptation Summit and committed Australia to join the global Call for Action on Raising Ambition for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, to developing a new National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy, and pledged new climate finance of at least $1.5 billion over the next five years.
In apparent contrast to these new commitments, Australia’s recent update to its Nationally Determined Commitment (NDC) under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement made no increase to already mitigated ambition, sticking with the current paltry target of reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. A target that is shockingly unambitious. Doubling down on this lack of ambition,
Kenya will need Sh6b for climate change project in 2030 standardmedia.co.ke - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from standardmedia.co.ke Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.