China and the United States for the climate

Passersby on a road full of cars driving at rush hour, this Monday in Beijing, China.ROMAN PILIPEY / EFE

Many issues confront China and the United States in this technological and globalized age, from the trade war or 5G to the serious violations of human rights by Beijing, but the world must celebrate the consensus they have been able to commit to in the fight against climate change. The two giants of the world economy, representatives of the two political poles that count on the planet today, agreed over the weekend to cooperate for the cause of warming with the necessary seriousness and urgency. Now they must specify steps and calendars before the imminent international meetings convened on this matter to draw more wills.

In the last four years there has been a very serious setback in the fight against climate change when Donald Trump removed the United States from the Paris Agreement, by which dozens of countries pledged in 2015 to transform their economies to limit the rise in temperature to no more than two degrees from pre-industrial levels. Beyond numbers and objectives, the ambition expressed in that agreement implies a revolution in the way of production and consumption, with a renunciation of the fossil fuels on which the economy has been based for a century and a half and a real change in paradigm. As Washington undertook this Trumpist shift, unnatural from the point of view of any valid scientific analysis, China began to take reverse steps:Xi Jinping pledged to peak carbon emissions in 2030 and to neutrality in 2060. Biden's arrival at the White House has been the turning point and generated the complete turnaround of the US, which has returned to the Agreement on Paris and that has a special envoy for this cause, John Kerry, a solvent Secretary of State with Obama who has spent three days in Shanghai with his Chinese counterpart to reach this agreement. An example that dialogue can break through and reap good news despite differences.a solvent Secretary of State with Obama who has spent three days in Shanghai with his Chinese counterpart to reach this agreement. An example that dialogue can break through and reap good news despite differences.a solvent Secretary of State with Obama who has spent three days in Shanghai with his Chinese counterpart to reach this agreement. An example that dialogue can break through and reap good news despite differences.

The two countries are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, but their starting positions are different: China is today the main one, with 28% of the total, although its historical path is much shorter. The US is second, with 15%, but its responsibility - like that of Europe - goes back much further. The commitment of both is key in a fight that requires a global international alignment to which Trump did great damage. China must demonstrate that its commitment is translated into action and that it assumes a leadership typical of a superpower, without the discourse of a developing country, and the United States must demonstrate that it is capable of maintaining its commitment over time, regardless of who it is. in the White House. Having both of you do these duties will make your climate commitment more feasible and credible.