COP25 summit: Expected to be cooling influence at UN climate conference, China instead lets Brazil heat up
- Joining Brasilia in threat to block agreement on carbon markets, Beijing disappoints western climate diplomats and negotiators
- ‘Brazil’s stance is very strong and it has put up a very defensive approach,’ a Chinese delegate says. ‘It is a headache even for us’
With Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro turning a blind eye to environmental concerns, western governments initially cast their hopes on China to engage the Brazilians during the annual UN conference on climate change.
But those expectations have been dashed, as China has turned out to share more common ground with Brazil than with the West.
China has pledged to uphold the landmark Paris Agreement and create a green nation. But global environmental groups and many diplomats and negotiators at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, now complain of China’s acquiescence with Brazil’s threat to block an agreement on a planned global carbon market scheme.
The UN climate summit is scheduled to end on Friday, but there is now at best only cautious optimism about the 195 participating nations reaching an agreement.
More pervasive is the disappointment over China’s statement, issued jointly on Wednesday with Brazil, India and South Africa, that denounces “imbalances in negotiations” that the four nations contend have led to a lack of climate financing commitments from developed nations.
Together, the four accounted for 36.6 per cent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions in 2017, according to UN statistics.