Expecting another climate gift

LI SHUO

President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US has raised hopes high. To begin with, the world's two largest carbon dioxide emitters could deliver another environmental high note, one that could have a big impact on the UN climate conference in Paris in December.

China and the US surprised the world with their joint statement on climate change last November and their environmental cooperation plan at the Strategic& Economic Dialogue in June. With the all-important Paris climate conference approaching, now is the time for the world's two largest economies to draft a long-term carbon mitigation policy and a structured plan to keep the rise in global temperature to below 2C by the middle of this century.

Genuine mutual interest is driving Beijing and Washington both to act. Bilaterally, the two sides are badly in need of some sunshine in their gloomy relationship.

Before Paris, a long-term mitigation goal agreed to by China and the US would send a strong signal to the world leaders and take the world a large step closer to keeping global temperature rise below 2C, a target that governments agreed to in 2010with no concrete plan of how to achieve it. Now is the time for Xi and his S counterpart to shift their focus from exploring domestic actions to sending a message to the UN climate conference on where the world can go next.

From China's perspective, probably there has been no better time to actively engage with the US on this issue. The latest statistics suggest that for the first time this century China's energy-related CO2 emissions did not increase in 2014, primarily because of a 2.9 percent decline in coal consumption, which also stalled the increase of global emissions. The trend is deepening this year.

Besides, a recent government study on China's long-term low-carbon development up to 2050 might also provide the basis for Xi to engage in this conversation.

The author is a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.