US President Barack Obama disembarks from Air Force One upon his arrival at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in Hangzhou, China. (Photo: AFP)
Setting aside their cyber and maritime disputes, President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping on Saturday sealed their nations’ participation in last year’s Paris climate change agreement. They hailed their new era of climate cooperation as the best chance for saving the planet.
At a ceremony on the sidelines of a global economic summit, Mr Obama and Mr Xi, representing the world’s two biggest carbon emitters, delivered a series of documents to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The papers certified the US and China have taken the necessary steps to join the Paris accord that set nation-by-nation targets for cutting carbon emissions.
“This is not a fight that any one country, no matter how powerful, can take alone,” Mr Obama said of the pact. “Some day we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet.”
Mr Xi, speaking through a translator, said he hoped other countries would follow suit and advance new technologies to help them meet their targets. “When the old path no longer takes us far, we should turn to innovation,” he said.
The formal US-Chinese announcement means the accord could enter force by the end of the year, a faster than anticipated timeline. Fifty-five nations must join for the agreement to take effect.
The nations that have joined must also produce at least 55 per cent of global emissions. Together, the US and China produce 38 per cent of the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
The White House has attributed the accelerated pace to an unlikely partnership between Washington and Beijing. To build momentum for a deal, they set a 2030 deadline for China’s emissions to stop rising and announced their “shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.” The US has pledged to cut its emissions by at least 26 per cent over the next 15 years, compared to 2005 levels.
The meeting of the minds on climate change, however, hasn’t smoothed the path for other areas of tension. The US has criticised China over cyberhacking and human rights and voiced increased exasperation with Beijing’s growing assertiveness in key waterways in the region.
Most recently, the US has urged China to accept an international arbitration panel’s ruling that sided with the Philippines in a dispute over claims in the South China Sea.
China views the South China Sea as an integral part of its national territory. The US doesn’t take positions in the various disputes between China and its Asian neighbours, but is concerned about freedom of navigation and wants conflicts resolved peacefully and lawfully.
Meeting Mr Xi after the climate announcement, Obama said thornier matters would be discussed. He specifically cited maritime disputes, cybersecurity and human rights concerns, though the president didn’t elaborate or stress the topics before the start of the meeting.
The ceremony opened what is likely Mr Obama’s valedictory tour in Asia.
