00:00 The rest of the planet may as well throw in the towel in the crusade against climate change
00:04 if the two biggest culprits for greenhouse gas emissions do not come together and join
00:08 the rest of all nations to significantly cut down on their carbon footprint or greenhouse
00:13 gas discharge.
00:14 Then again, despite growing political tensions over a number of issues, China and the United
00:20 States are back in the saddle to brainstorm for positive and working solutions, even as
00:25 extreme climate is far more frequent everywhere on the planet.
00:29 As VOA's Laurel Browman reports.
00:34 At talks this week in Beijing, US climate envoy John Kerry said the threat of global
00:40 warming requires global leadership, including from the world's top two polluters, the United
00:47 States and China.
00:48 The climate issue is not a bilateral issue in our judgment.
00:53 President Biden believes, as I think most of the world does, that the climate crisis
00:58 is a universal threat to humankind, and we all have a responsibility to deal with it
01:05 as rapidly as we can.
01:08 And we hope we will leave other issues to the side.
01:11 Chinese officials made some hopeful comments during Kerry's visit, but China's top leadership
01:17 said Wednesday that the country would move at its own pace to protect the environment.
01:22 The nation has a way to go, some experts say.
01:25 In the last year, a lot of China's action has actually gone backwards.
01:29 We've seen their emissions go up the highest in any single year period.
01:35 We've seen coal power plant approvals go up.
01:39 We've seen the domestic consumption of coal go up.
01:43 Climate talks between the US and China had been stalled for roughly a year because of
01:48 national security, technology and ideology issues.
01:52 So the re-engagement between the two countries is in itself an important step, some experts
01:58 say.
01:59 That is a step that could produce potentially enhanced action in each of the two countries,
02:05 and also a step that will potentially support enhanced action globally, as the two, the
02:13 world's two biggest economies and two biggest emitters need to be coordinating and communicating.
02:19 Miltman says the US and China are wrestling with questions about developing renewable
02:24 energy, deploying electric vehicle fleets and curbing the emission of gases such as
02:30 methane.
02:31 But other experts were watching for news of concrete agreements.
02:36 What they had in China was really a clearing of the air, a display and a discussion of
02:41 what's working and what's not working.
02:44 No agreement came out of this, I think largely because there is this very large backlog of
02:49 issues.
02:50 I think this is a small win for the US-China relationship as a whole and the stabilization
02:56 of that relationship.
02:57 But I think on climate change especially, any significant breakthrough has really been
03:02 punted down the road.
03:04 Further talks are reportedly planned between the US and China before the COP28 climate
03:10 talks this year in Dubai.
03:13 Laurel Booman, VU News, Washington.
