When news came through mid-afternoon (Egypt time) that the two leaders had “agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts” on climate change the relief among some on the COP campus was palpable.
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping right before the meeting.AP
The significance of the decision to quarantine climate change from increased tension between the two superpowers cannot be exaggerated.
It is not just that the US is the greatest historical emitter of greenhouse gasses and China the current greatest polluter.
As Alden Meyer,a senior associate at the global climate think tank E3G and a long-time veteran of high-end climate diplomacy put it on Sunday night,things happen in climate when the US and China say they will.
The entire Paris process can be traced back to secret diplomacy between the two nations’ climate envoys,John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua.
Appalled by the failure of the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen,China and the US opened back channels well before the crucial Paris meeting climate meeting in 2015. By the time the rest of the world showed up,the heavyweights had effectively decided that a mechanism for reducing emissions would be agreed upon,and so it came to pass.
When the Glasgow talks appeared to be failing a year ago,momentum resumed when China and the US issued a joint statement announcing they would cooperate on a coal phase-out and methane emission reductions.
“Co-operation is the only choice for both China and the US,” Xie told reporters via a translator in Glasgow.
“By working together,our two countries can achieve many important things that are beneficial,not only to our two countries,but to the world as a whole. As two major powers in the world,China and the US shoulder special international responsibilities and obligations.”
Li Shuo,senior policy advisor for Greenpeace China,is in Egypt for COP27.Nick O'Malley
By quarantining climate from their broader competition,it began to look as though China and the US had found not only an effective way to battle warming,but a valve to release tension between them as it grew over other issues.
Then in August,China,infuriated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,pulled the plug on climate talks.
Now both Kerry and Xie - and their teams of advisors - are in Sharm el-Sheikh,where they have not been able to hold official talks.
Tension over the issue of Loss and Damage finance - which China backs and US opposes - has spilled over into other areas of negotiation,gumming up a process that demands the consensus of nearly 200 nations.
Now that their leaders have declared these two men,who have worked together on climate now for a decade,can once again officially engage,many hope the broader negotiations will improve.
“They are the centre of gravity,” says Li Shuo,senior policy advisor for Greenpeace China who is in Egypt for the talks,explains.
“When they talk,it helps calm down tension.
“The climate agenda is a very special one in the bilateral relationship. It is different to economic or trade or political issues in that it is not just the interests of these two countries that are at stake,but[those of] the entire world.
“So that requires of them that they set aside their differences to work in the interests of the entire global community.”
Li says the relief in the negotiating rooms in Egypt on Monday was real,but warns against indulging in too much optimism.
“I would stress that all we are seeing here is that they have prevented the worst outcome,which would be some sort of climate policy decoupling.
“What we need to see from them is leadership.”
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