The Two Bad Boys

In an earlier post, I mentioned that one NGO representative called China and the United States the “two bad boys” who were “hiding behind each other.”  The week in Tianjin ended with little progress, and if you read the China Daily and the New York Times, it certainly seems to be all about China and the United States.  According to the U. S. account “China is ignoring pledges made under a global-warming accord reached

last year, … and Chinese officials have acted as though the agreement “never happened.” The article also mentions that China does not want to have “independent monitoring to verify their commitments.”

Meanwhile, China continues to commit to reduce its carbon intensity, and blames the delay of an international agreement on the United States. The China Daily article begins, “Progress in climate-treaty negotiations has been blocked because the United States has pushed to abandon the Kyoto Protocol while placing blame on developing countries.”  Their negotiator, Su Wei, pointed out that “some developed countries have kept silent on their mitigation plans after 2012.”  

    Unfortunately, China and the United States together account for half of the world’s emmisions. (To be fair, China’s per capita emissions level is a fraction of the United States emissions level.)  Without these two parties coming to some kind of agreement, there is little hope for a better outcome in Cancun.