China’s foreign ministry on Thursday said that climate change diplomacy between Beijing and Washington cannot be separated from broader political tensions between the two sides…reports Asian Lite News
With nearly 200 countries set to gather in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, diplomatic tensions between the two biggest sources of climate-warming greenhouse gas are threatening to overshadow the summit, media reported.
China’s foreign ministry on Thursday said that climate change diplomacy between Beijing and Washington cannot be separated from broader political tensions between the two sides, and the latter must take responsibility for the breakdown in talks, Reuters reported.
“China and the United States previously developed good cooperation in the area of climate change, working together to get the Paris Agreement reached and brought into effect,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement late on Thursday.
“At the same time, China-US climate cooperation cannot be separated from the broad climate of bilateral ties,” the spokesperson added, noting that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “serious breach of Chinese sovereignty” in Taiwan had left China with no choice but to suspend the talks.
“The United States side must take responsibility for this.”
Pelosi visited Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims, in August, which triggered huge tensions between the world’s two largest economies. China even held large-scale military exercises for days around Taiwan in response to Pelosi’s visit.
Following the visit, Beijing cancelled the dialogue between American and Chinese defence officials, while co-operation on returning illegal immigrants, climate change, and investigating international crime was suspended.
Last month, Egypt had set out a vision for COP27, which aims to make it an “implementation COP” by pushing for actions across prior agreements through all areas of climate change needs.
We must accelerate climate action on all fronts including mitigation, adaptation and finance in addition to adopting more ambitious mitigation measures to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach,” Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 President-Designate Sameh Shoukry said.
There is “no room for delay in the fulfillment of climate pledges or backtracking on hard earned gains in the global fight against climate change”, Shoukry was quoted as saying.
“We must work together for implementation. We need to act, and act now, to save lives and livelihoods,” Shoukry added.