Horowitz: Obama and Jinping Forge Big Climate Change Breakthrough

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

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Rob Horowitz

The joint US China Climate Change agreement announced at the end of the Summit between the two nations last week provides a historic breakthrough in so far fitful global efforts to combat climate change.  

President Obama succeeded in getting China, now the world’s largest carbon emitter, to move off its position that the climate change problem was created by the developed nations such as the United States and Europe, and so it is unfair to ask the developing nations including China and India to shortchange their own economic growth to solve a problem they didn't create. This critical and essential shift of position--the product of months of behind the scenes negotiations--paves the way for major progress when the international community meets next year in Paris to negotiate a new international climate agreement. Referring to the US-China deal, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said, “it makes it more likely we shall have a meaningful global agreement on climate by the end of 2015."

More specifically, China agreed to cap its emission of greenhouse gases by 2030 or sooner and then begin to reduce as well as produce at least 20% of its energy from renewable sources. At the same time, the United States pledged to reduce its emissions by 26%-28% below its 2005 level in 2025, building on its previous commitment for a 17% reduction by 2020. Also spelled out in the joint agreement are a series of research initiatives, including devising more energy efficient buildings and pursuing carbon capture technology, where the two nations plan to work together. At the joint press conference with President Xi Jinping announcing the deal, President Obama said, “As the world's two largest economies, energy consumers and emitters of greenhouse gases, we have a special responsibility to lead the global effort against climate change."

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Along with persistent diplomacy, a series of actions by President Obama that demonstrated the United States was going to do its part on climate change helped bring about this breakthrough. Among the actions taken by the President are mandating increased fuel standards for the nation’s fleet of heavy-duty truck, dramatically increasing fuel mileage standards for cars and light trucks. and requiring existing power plants to reduce carbon emissions. These actions were all taken using the President's authority under the Clean Air Act. Taken together, these and additional executive actions put the United States on a path to achieve at least the 17% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 it pledged to accomplish as part of the 2009 international Copenhagen agreement. Walking- the-walk sent a message of seriousness to the rest of the world that is now paying off in a major way.

Congressional Republican leaders, unfortunately, reacted in predictably negative fashion. Before the ink was even dry, incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R_KY) said, “I was particularly distressed by the deal that he has apparently reached with the Chinese on his current trip, which as I read the agreement requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years, while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc in my state and other states around the country,” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH0 called the deal another example of Obama's "job-crushing policies."

On a more positive and ultimately much more important note, the impact in the rest of the world, where the science of climate change is viewed as a settled fact, can already be seen. In this past weekend’s G-20 Economic Summit bringing together the nations with the most economic power, a discussion of climate change was added to the agenda in the wake of the agreement.

Limiting climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing us and since greenhouse gases are indifferent to national boundaries major progress can only be made through broad international cooperation. This agreement between the world’s two biggest carbon emitters provides the impetus required to take the steps needed to prevent a too rapidly warming world and the pronounced negative consequences that would result. President’ Obama’s strategy and persistence on climate change, done in the face of intense political opposition, has yielded impressive and potentially game-changing results.
 
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island
 

 

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