The United States’ and China’s new climate envoys are holding their first in-person talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, leading a bilateral working group discussion to accelerate concrete climate action.
Some analysts caution that political and economic tensions between the world’s two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, or CO2, could hamper progress on the climate front.
This week’s talks will take place against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s probe into Chinese-made electric vehicles, or EVs, and calls to increase tariffs on the import of solar panels from China to protect domestic producers.
John Podesta, senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden for international climate policy, and Liu Zhenmin, the People’s Republic of China’s special envoy for climate change, along with relevant officials from both countries, will convene this week’s working-group talks.
“The meeting will focus on areas identified in the Sunnylands Statement, including energy transition, methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states and cities, and deforestation, among others,” according to the State Department.
Sunnylands statement
In November 2023, John Kerry, then-U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and Xie Zhenhua, China’s former special envoy for climate change, met in Sunnylands, California, to reaffirm their commitments to jointly address the climate crisis.
The agreement focuses on many less competitive areas, according to analysts.
“For example, in a first, both sides agreed to include methane in their 2035 climate goals and the agreement highlighted a target of promoting at least five large-scale cooperative projects in carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS,” said Jennifer Turner, the director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum.
CCUS is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and either reuses or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere.
In the Sunnylands statement, the U.S. and China also said they are determined to end plastic pollution.
“The two countries have been meeting at the table for the Global Plastic Treaty but neither has made plastic a part of the bilateral talks. As is true in energy, we are also plastic waste superpowers and what actions we take in this space could also be game changing,” Turner told VOA on Tuesday.
Digitally connected vehicles and solar panels
However, the climate envoys are likely to steer clear of electric vehicles as an area for climate cooperation because they have become a huge area of tension.
The Biden administration has said it would investigate Chinese-made digitally connected vehicles, citing potential national security risks and concerns over their capability to collect sensitive information about American users. On February 29, Biden criticized what it called PRC’s unfair practices in its auto industry.
“China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security,” Biden said in a statement.
U.S. officials have also criticized China’s excess production in solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. In April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said China’s subsidizing of clean energy and industrial overcapacity “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
In October 2023, the European Commission, responsible for trade policy in the 27-nation European Union, launched an investigation into potential distortive subsidies for battery electric vehicles manufactured in China, possibly leading to additional tariffs.
The investigation is ongoing.
Chinese officials said the Biden administration’s actions are discriminatory. They have asked the U.S. to “stop overstretching the concept of national security” and “stop its discriminatory suppression against Chinese companies.”
“I would like to stress that Chinese-made cars are popular globally not by using so-called ‘unfair practices,’ but by emerging from the fierce market competition with technological innovation and superb quality,” said a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, on March 1 during a briefing in Beijing.
She called the U.S. investigation “trade protectionism” and said, “such acts of politicizing economic and trade issues will only hinder the development of the U.S. auto industry itself.”
