Special Representative of US President and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen recently paid a visit to China. The first task in his agenda is to inspect Sand Prevention and Planting Project near the Qinghai Lake. It is learned that the climate change issue will be an important topic for Paulsen and Chinese officials to discuss during Paulson's visit. This arrangement is nothing like an individual's preference. There is a wide international strategy background and deep domestic political foundation behind.
At the international level, climate change has become one of the focuses in international relations. In April this year, under the initiative of UK, the UN Security Council for the first time discussed the issue of climate change. The EU decided to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 by another 20% on the basis of that of 1999. At the G-8 Summit in early June, the host country Germany gave top priority to climate change and suggested that developed countries implement mandatory emission reduction plan, so as to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 1990 in 2050 and control the global temperature rise within 2 degrees centigrade in the next 40 years.
As the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, the United States bears the greatest responsibility for the global warming problem. The Bush administration, on the purpose of protecting domestic industries, rejected the "Kyoto Protocol" in early days of his office term. Now, in the face of the increasingly pressure from the European countries, on the one hand, the Bush administration still rejected to shoulder the responsibility for mandatory emission reduction; on the other hand, it introduced a "long-term strategy" and invited 15 major global greenhouse gas emitters to attend a series of meetings scheduled in autumn this year. He hopes that the participants in these meetings will be able to reach a new emission reduction target by the end of 2008, so as to replace the "Kyoto Protocol" which will expire in 2012.
On the domestic front, "Katrina" hurricane in 2005 and the warm winter in 2006 have attracted more and more US public attention to climate change and global warming issues. Former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" has also added fuel to the flames. After the Democrats controlled the House and Senate, concerns of public and environmental organizations on this issue quickly brought political pressure on the Congress. Many states have also begun to develop local laws and regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In large measure, climate change issue has become a cross-party consensus.
To implement the "Long-term strategy", the United States needs to cooperate with China. With the rapid economic development, China shoulders tremendous pressure on environment. Although the two countries have disagreements and contradictions on the issue of climate change, they also have broad space for cooperation. Through dialogue and cooperation, the two can create new highlight for bilateral cooperation. On the contrary, if the United States only keeps complaining, confronting, and even provokes the so-called "China environmental threat theory", it may turn the climate change issue into a stumbling stone for the Sino-US relations.
After the Cold War, both China and US learnt from their experience that the two sides should "enhance mutual trust, reduce trouble, and promote cooperation instead of confrontation." In the complicated situation, Sino-US relation is just like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. Therefore, the issue of climate change will help both sides enhance trust and dispel doubts, so as to create new highlight for further cooperation. It is of strategic significance which can help the Sino-US relations develop in a healthy and stable way.
By People's Daily Online; The author Yu Wanli is associate professor of the Institute of International Relations of Peking University
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