Chinese, U.S. Cities Sign Climate Leaders Declaration
The Climate Leaders Declaration and a series of agreements were signed Tuesday by U.S. governors and mayors with their Chinese counterparts who attended the China-U.S. Climate Leaders Summit in Los Angeles.
The two-day meeting, with a full name of China-U.S. Climate-Smart/Low Carbon Cities Summit, was the first of its kind at the provincial and city level between the two countries.
Xie Zhenhua, Chinese special representative on climate change issues, said in his speech that the issue of climate change is the challenge for both China and the United States, and also an important aspect for the two countries to strengthen cooperation and promote the development of green energy.
Climate warming is an irrefutable fact and climate change is a focused issued in the world now. The global warming, sea level rise and frequent occurrence of extreme weather come faster and severer than we thought. It has brought a severe challenge for human’s survival and development, said Xie.
As the world's largest developed and developing nations, the U.S. and China represent about 40 percent of the world's carbon emission, California Governor Jerry Brown said in his speech, and as most of the population are in cities, the actions of cities are very important.
Together, these two powerful nations have the responsibility and capacity to get something done, Brown said.
A total of 14 Chinese cities and provinces, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Sichuan and Zhenjiang, and U.S. states and cities including California, Connecticut, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Houston, signed the Declaration and other working agreements, such as the California-China Urban Climate Collaborative (CCUCC) and the Memorandum of Understanding between the cities of Shenzhen and Los Angeles and similar agreements between other cities.
The summit fulfills a key element of the China-U.S. Joint Announcement on Climate Change by Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Presidents Barack Obama last November, which has a part to implement the climate goal of each country at local government level.
Xie stressed at a news briefing after the conference that the China-U.S. Joint Announcement on Climate Change makes two of the largest nations in the world to reach a consensus on tackling with climate change.
It plays a very important role, as the two sides announced their respective goals. In fact, it forms a mechanism that drives governments to take measures in accordance with the goals. It means that with the development of economy and people’s living standard, the environment protection must be guaranteed as we have these goals and measures on coping with climate change to achieve, Xie said.
Several forums and roundtable talks will be held during the two-day summit, discussing city carbon reduction, renewable energy, environmental friendly business and other related topics.
Yang Jiechi, the Special Envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will attend the closing ceremony Wednesday.
China announced to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 60 to 65 percent from the 2005 level by 2030 in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, submitted earlier this year to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Some U.S. state and city governments also set ambitious on carbon-reduction targets.
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