John Kerry's China Trip Was Not a Total Climate Loss - Bloomberg
John Kerry's China Trip Was Not a Total Climate Change Loss - Bloomberg
John Kerry's China Trip Was Not a Total Climate Loss
The former US secretary of state failed to extract new and more aggressive efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but what he did get was a much bigger deal than most environmentalists seem to want to admit.
Not a total loss.Photographer: Andrea Verdelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former Secretary of State and current US presidential climate envoy John Kerry came up short in his efforts to convince the People’s Republic of China to adopt new and more aggressive efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, China says it will continue with its current commitments. That means emissions will continue to rise for the next several years, peak in 2030, and decline after that.
The diplomatic failure here is not a huge surprise. What, after all, was Kerry going to promise China in exchange for big concessions on emissions? But it’s a significant deal in practical terms for the global climate trajectory — a much bigger deal than most environmentalists seem to want to admit.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.