China used this year’s edition of the COP, the UN climate conference (United Nations), to show that it does not depend on the United States in driving its sustainability agenda, but signaling its willingness to resume cooperation.
Led by envoy Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese delegation arrived in Egypt without formal negotiations with the Americans on the subject.
Talks had been on hold since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August. At last year’s edition in Glasgow, Scotland, there was a rare joint declaration of cooperation with Washington.
At the time, in an unprecedented way, Beijing unlocked the debate around the warming targets defined at COP26. While the Paris Agreement capped warming at less than 2°C above pre-industrial times, leaders meeting in 2021 in the Scottish city have signaled their intention to lower the target to 1.5°C.
At COP27, however, the US special envoy for climate, John Kerry, complained about the resistance of “some countries” to the topic, without naming names. Xie Zhenhua said on Monday (14) that he was not opposed.
Although they have not held official meetings in Egypt, Xie and Kerry have been seen in informal conversations at least seven times.
People present at the event told Folha that the climate became milder after Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping on the eve of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, when the two leaders signaled the resumption of dialogue.
For Taylah Bland, master in Global Studies at Tsinghua University and resident researcher at the Asia Society, the posture of the Chinese delegation indicates that Beijing will be open to cooperation, but wants to signal that it does not depend on the Americans to implement the domestic sustainability agenda.
The expert believes that, with the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement promoted by Donald Trump (Biden later resumed commitments), China saw an opportunity to lead the climate agenda.
However, Bland points out that China will not be able to fulfill its pledge to become a carbon neutral nation by 2060 on its own.
The commitment was signed by Xi Jinping himself at the UN General Assembly last year, but experts estimate that achieving the feat would require investments of US$14.7 trillion over the next 30 years.
“Can China invest that much money and achieve this goal on its own? I don’t think it can. They will certainly depend on additional funding and help from other countries. However, by now it is quite clear that there is no solution to the climate issue without them”, analyzes the expert.
Shifting aid to the Chinese, however, could prove to be a thorny topic. While Beijing insists on classifying itself as a developing economy, which means fewer commitments to global goals, there is a growing international call for it to contribute financially as a
Developed country.
On November 8, the negotiating bloc of the Association of Small Island States —made up of countries whose existence is threatened by the rise in terrestrial temperature— advocated that China and India make transfers in cash to a compensation fund for disasters caused by the
global warming.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister and leader of the bloc, Gaston Browne told the press that “we all know they are big polluters, and polluters must pay”. The Chinese reacted by saying that they supported the idea of a fund “even though we are not obliged”, although they did not commit to making the financial contributions.
Tailah Bland defends the creation of a new category in the climate negotiations, which would be called “economy in transition”. It would be a special case in which China would be “subject to paying, but also eligible to receive funds that help the country reach a new stage of
sustainable development”.
“We need to rethink the relationship we have with climate change. China may be a big carbon emitter, but it also needs help making changes internally. If we don’t start seeing this relationship as a two-way street, no change will happen and stalemate will block any advances,” says Bland.
She admits, however, that a new classification would certainly run into resistance from other middle-income countries that could also receive the same denomination.
A researcher on China issues at the Cipó platform, who participated in COP27, João Cumaru assesses that the Chinese refusal to contribute to this fund does not denote less commitment, but different priorities.
He explains that the delegation was more interested in “taking sustainable guidelines, green guidelines for investments in other countries like Brazil, for example, than necessarily engaging in this way [com compensações financeiras]🇧🇷
Cumaru, who is co-author of a report published by Cipó with suggestions for the new Brazilian environmental policy, also claims to see good opportunities for Brazil in the face of new
Chinese priorities.
“China can offer expertise, technology infrastructure and capacity to absorb or transfer investments and share knowledge. It is one more option, given the priorities signaled by President-elect Lula [PT]to also explore lines of financing.”
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