28 July 2009
U.S. Tells China Climate Change Is National Security Priority
Washington — The State Department’s top climate change envoy says U.S. officials meeting with their Chinese counterparts in Washington are conveying the importance of climate change for U.S. national security, and he predicts that, despite difficulties, the world’s two largest economies ultimately will reach an agreement.
Speaking in a teleconference with other U.S. officials July 27, after the first day of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, State Department Special Envoy for Climate Change Issues Todd Stern said visiting Chinese officials “could not help but get the message that this issue is of high importance to the president, the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of energy,” and others in the Obama administration.
Stern said he believes the Chinese see climate change as an issue of significant importance, not only “as a substantive matter, but also of real importance in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, and increasingly something that’s going to be important for … the way they are perceived by the rest of the world.”
According to Stern, the Chinese are interested in “a constructive and successful outcome” to multilateral discussions on climate change that will be held in Copenhagen in December. But he acknowledged that the perspectives of major developing countries such as China and India are “quite different” from that of the United States. “There is a lot of ingrained and embedded perspective on this issue that goes back now for 15 years,” he said. “With respect to prospects ... we’re slogging ahead. I think that we will get there. I think we will end up with an agreement.”
Under the Obama administration, climate change has “risen up to the top of the U.S. national security set of priorities,” he said. In their talks with the Chinese in Washington, U.S. officials cited the mainstream scientific view that global temperature increase since pre-industrial times should be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, and described efforts to promote clean energy inside the United States.
All major countries need to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, Stern said. “In the case of developed countries, that’s a reduction … in an absolute sense, against the baseline. And in the case of developing countries, that’s a reduction against their so-called business-as-usual path,” which he described as still being “a substantial reduction, but against a business-as-usual path, rather than something absolute.”
Stern said reduction of emissions is only one element of the effort to combat climate change, but is “probably the heart of it.”
He described the meetings on climate change as being “quite constructive,” and the participation of many officials from different levels on both sides “highlighted the importance of the issue to both countries and the degree to which climate and clean energy are becoming increasingly seen as interrelated to both economic and national security issues facing both countries.”
U.S. AND CHINA RECOGNIZE THEIR IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
In discussions on the bilateral financial relationship, the Treasury Department’s senior coordinator for China, David Loevinger, said both countries recognize their position as the world’s two largest economies and that “whatever each economy does is going to have an impact on the rest of the world.”
U.S. and Chinese officials held practical discussions about what they need to do respectively and jointly to promote financial and economic recovery from the global economic crisis, he said.
Loevinger said there was “notable agreement” that the world economy has changed since 2006–2007. In the United States, he said, the economic structure has “probably changed fundamentally” with increased savings rates, especially in American households.
China’s economic growth is good for U.S. companies and workers, he said, adding that if China wants to meet its targets for continued growth, “it’s not going to be able to grow by exporting to the U.S., and as far as we can tell, to the rest of the world. China is going to have to promote more homegrown consumption-led growth.”
On the Chinese side, “I don’t think anybody disagreed with that assessment,” Loevinger said.
The financial sector for both countries is better than it was 10 months to 12 months ago, he said, and the focus of the day’s discussions went beyond the financial sector to other issues such as “the real economy and … job creation.”
The countries also discussed each others’ financial stimulus packages that are designed to help with domestic economic recovery, and asked each other when some of the stimulus policies, which run high deficits and cannot be sustained in the long term, will be withdrawn.
Loevinger said the Obama administration’s stimulus plan is designed to extend through 2011, but not at its current rate. It will be brought down to sustainable levels by “looking at all the tools — tax, revenue, changes in revenues, spending cuts, holding the line on spending increases, and most importantly, containing the rise in government spending on health care,” he said.
What foreign affairs decisions should President Obama consider? Comment on America.gov’s blog Obama Today.
