China and Germany agree to step up climate change cooperation

Name: World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit
Uploaded: 2021-04-27T09:41:10.000Z
Duration: 3 min 27 s
Description: World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit

The two countries pledged to step up their efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions more quickly than planned

Both are committed to limiting the rise in global temperatures to1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100

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Environmental groups say cutting coal use and boosting the use of renewables can play a key role. Photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 5:41pm, 27 Apr 2021Updated: 12:07pm, 19 May 2021

Germany and China agreed Monday to step up their cooperation in combating climate change in an effort to help stop global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.

Countries are running out of time to achieve that target, laid down in the Paris agreement more than five years ago, because global temperatures have already increased by about 1.2 C since pre-industrial times, scientists say.

“We need to do everything possible to lower greenhouse gas emissions faster than planned so far,” said Svenja Schulze, Germany’s environment minister. “Along with the big industrialised countries we also need China for this.”

China has become the world’s largest emitter of planet-heating gases, overtaking the United States, which now ranks second. It has pledged to stop adding carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere by 2060 – a decade later than the US and the European Union.

The agreement comes ahead of a meeting of the two countries’ cabinets on Wednesday.

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World leaders pledge to cut greenhouse emissions at virtual Earth Day summit

Schulze said she and her Chinese counterpart Huang Runqiu discussed how Beijing can bring forward the year when it will start reducing emissions and cuts its use of coal. Germany aims to phase out the burning of coal for electricity by 2038.