California, China Sign Climate Agreement Post Trump’s Decision To Leave Paris Accords
With President Trump backing out of the Paris Agreements, there was stiff opposition from the rest of the US against Trump’s decision. In that light, the governor of California signed a climate agreement with China, after declaring that “disaster still looms” if there is no urgent action taken against climate change.
At the clean energy press conference in Beijing, the state’s governor said that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris accords would only be a temporary setback and that individual US states, China and European countries would try to negate Trump’s decision by assuming leadership in this issue.
“Nobody can stay on the sidelines. We can’t afford any dropouts in the tremendous human challenge to make the transition to a sustainable future,” Brown said. “Disaster still looms and we’ve got to make the turn.” Brown held a closed-door meeting with the President of China, Xi Jinping, during which they pledged to expand trade with each other, with an emphasis on the exchange of green technologies to help battle climate change.
"The China-California climate deal, although constitutionally challenging, is reassuring and sends a very strong message on the erroneousness of President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. California is recognised as a sustainability leader globally and they have once again proven their mettle. If state governments representing 36% of the GDP, over 200 city mayors and 1000 other entities are going against their federal government’s decision, hopefully, sense will prevail.", said Leena Srivastava, Vice Chancellor of TERI University in New Delhi.
The deals which are non-binding between California and China, just like the Paris accords, call for investments in low-carbon energy sources, cooperation on climate research and the commercialization of cleaner technologies. The agreements do not establish new emission reduction goals.
California has the strictest climate controls in the country, spearheading the renewable energy movement in the US, however, China has overtaken the US in renewable energy. Xi emphasised the state’s unique economic impact and encouraged California to promote ties on the local level in science, innovation and green development, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.
Xi “has definitely given the green light for more collaboration between China and California and, I would say, other states through this subnational-level arrangement,” Brown said.
California has worked with China on environmental issues for years, including zero-emissions vehicles and air pollution control. Chinese officials recently asked the state for guidance with a carbon emissions trading market they plan to launch this year.
“China is making a substantial contribution, as are other places in the world, and we are stepping up the effort,” Brown said.
“It’s a historic event. It will pave the way for non-conventional partnerships going beyond and breaking all geographical, political and administrative protocols as well as barriers to transnational and regional cooperation. I will term it as a beginning of “climate diplomacy” for business negotiations”, said Sudhir Sinha, CEO of CSR Inc.
