Politics
U.S. Wants to Insulate Climate Talks From Tensions With China
Making progress on global warming will be tougher as the superpowers wrangle over Taiwan, trade, and other issues.
John Kerry
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
In the lead-up to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, then-President Obama flew to Beijing and won a major concession from President Xi Jinping—that China would peak its carbon emissions around 2030. It paved the way for the historic accord.
As President Biden seeks to aim higher before a global climate conference in the U.K. this November, he may find that getting on the same page with China will be harder. U.S.-China relations on climate matter not only because the two countries account for just less than half of the world’s emissions, but also because what they do sends a signal to the rest of the world.