China and the US: united on climate action but divided on responsibility

China is at a different development stage than the US and Europe but remains committed to its climate-related goals, says Beijing’s special envoy

Xi Jinping says nations must be consistent and ‘credible’ by not changing their climate policies

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China’s President Xi Jinping did not make any new climate pledges during the Earth Day Summit. Chinese officials say climate change must not be used as a geopolitical tool Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:59pm, 23 Apr 2021Updated: 12:07pm, 19 May 2021

China and the United States might agree on the need to work together to tackle climate change but they are still far apart on the burden each should bear.

Addressing the US-hosted Earth Day Summit this week, US President Joe Biden said his country was not the only major polluter and that the “world’s largest economies” had to step up. But his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said nations had to be credible instead of constantly changing their climate policies and they had to help developing countries to tackle the crisis.

Chinese officials also said climate change should not be used as a geopolitical card to extend influence and that the big nations had still failed to provide enough help to poor countries.

As he wrapped up the two-day summit on Friday, Biden celebrated the American return to global climate leadership – a role it ceded to China’s advantage during the Donald Trump administration – and gave a shout-out to Russia while pointedly omitting any mention of China. President Vladimir Putin has proposed collaborating on the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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“Putin and I have our disagreements, but he’s talking about how you capture carbon from space,” Biden said. “The United States looks forward to working with Russia and other countries in that endeavour.”

Differences between Beijing and Washington have led to questions about how far the two nations can go together on climate change.