China Environmental Law

By now you have no doubt heard that Secretary of State Clinton will travel this month to Japan, China, and Korea.  Dot Earth is reporting that “climate and energy will be high on the agenda.”  She will apparently be accompanied by Todd Stern the new US climate change special envoy.  He told Dot Earth that “a top goal is to end the endless sparring between the two giant sources of greenhouse gases over who needs to do what first.” 

“Secretary Clinton is keenly aware that the United States - as the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases - and China - as the largest emitter going forward - need to develop a strong, constructive partnership to build the kind of clean energy economies that will allow us to put the brakes on global climate change,” Mr. Stern said. “We need to put finger-pointing aside and focus on how our two leading nations can work together productively to solve the problem.”

No more finger-pointing and sparring– that’s a good start, but Mr. Stern should come with a detailed plan and timetable for engaging China on this important issue.  It simply can’t wait, and there is a lot to be done.

For your reading pleasure, Dot Earth notes that two new reports will be released Thursday “bulging” with recommendations on US-China climate change negotiations.  One for the Brookings Institution, authored by David Sandalow and Kenneth Lieberthal, and one from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the Asia Society.

In today’s New York Times it is reported that the Pew Center/Asia Society report

recommends that China and the United States convene a presidential summit meeting to create a broad plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, followed by the appointment of senior officials and independent experts to councils and task forces to develop concrete programs.

That sounds like a very sensible proposal for the negotiation superstructure, assuming very tight deadlines are established for the development of the specific programs.  

Update: Although the Pew/Asia Society report was apparently not set for release in the US until Thursday, it appears to already be available here.  I’ve just had a chance to skim it looking for the 800 pound gorilla, and unfortunately the report goes all squishy at this point:

Common but Differentiated Responsibilities. As a point of departure, an equitablepartnership must be built on a shared understanding of respective responsibilities and capacities. As the world’s largest economy and largest historic greenhouse gas emitter, the United States must demonstrate leadership by moving swiftly to reduce its emissions through mandatory national legislation. Although China has now surpassed the United States as the world’s largest annual emitter, its cumulative and per capita emissions are much lower, and development and poverty reduction will remain overriding national priorities for the foreseeable future. Having adopted a comprehensive national climate change program, National Climate Change Program, and agreed on the need to reduce its emissions below “business as usual,” China must now deliver an ambitious and effective national effort.

I hope that report, at the very least, advocates binding limits on the rate of growth of China’s carbon emissions.  I’ll have more to say when I’ve read the whole thing.