(United Nations) Chinese President Xi Jinping told the United Nations on Tuesday that Beijing would stop shutting down coal plants abroad, adding his voice to a series of announcements on the fight against climate change just weeks before the start of the COP26 summit.
According to experts, US President Joe Biden has told him that the United States will “double” its aid to developing countries in tackling the climate crisis.
Both actions were immediately applauded by the security forces, who have long called for them, as well as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“If today’s announcements are welcome, we still have a long way to go to make COP26 a success,” Mr.
“Dirty” energy
Photo cyanotopics, by pressure associated with archives
President Xi reaffirmed that China will stop increasing its greenhouse gas emissions before 2030. Above, a coal-fired power plant on the Yangtze River in Nandong, China.
President Xi Jinping told the UN General Assembly that China would “not build new coal plants abroad”, but without specifying a timetable.
Recently, South Korea and Japan made similar promises.
Helen Mountford, of the World Resource Organization, said in a statement that this was “a historic breakthrough from the world’s dirty fossil fuels”. The organization recalls that “over the past decade”, China has invested “billions of dollars” in coal factories in other countries.
In Indonesia, Vietnam or Bangladesh, for example, the “New Silk Roads” are part of a larger infrastructure project launched by President Xi Jinping.
“While it is important that the phasing out of coal funding abroad is significant, it does not preclude China from taking ambitious measures within its borders,” Helen Mountford recalled.
This is because Tuesday’s announcement did not mark the end of Beijing’s investment in coal.
During a visit to China in early September, US Climate Ambassador John Kerry asked Chinese authorities to halt construction.
“The days of coal power are numbered,” COP26 leader Alok Sharma responded on Twitter on Tuesday, welcoming the Chinese announcement. In COP26, we have to generate coal from ancient history. ”
Turkish endorsement of the Paris Agreement
Joe Biden has pledged to work with the US Congress to achieve the goal of doubling US funding to support developing countries in the face of climate change.
“With our help, with increased capital from the private sector and other donors, we can achieve the $ 100 billion mobilization target,” Biden said.
Developed countries actually pledged to raise $ 100 billion a year between 2009 and 2025 for this assistance in Copenhagen in 2009. But COP26 in Glasgow in November has undoubtedly backtracked on a controversial financial plan.
This material constantly raises the anger of poor countries, the first victims of the effects of climate change, condemning the lack of unity of rich countries, mainly due to this global warming.
The OECD announced last week that this north-south aid reached $ 79.6 billion in 2019, just 2% higher than in 2018.
Rachel Cleitus, of the Union of Scientists concerned, responded Tuesday that the announcement by the U.S. president was welcome and a necessary signal for the United States to finally take responsibility for its climate.
“We appreciate President Biden’s promise,” said Yakupitiya, a spokeswoman for the militant group 350.org. “The United States is responsible for most of the historic emissions that trigger climate change,” he recalled.
Turkey also contributed to the good news, ahead of COP26, which announced it would ratify the Paris Agreement next month.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalled that his country had signed, but had not yet ratified it because of differences of opinion about the “burden sharing” between industrialized countries of the Turkish kind.
The Paris Agreement aims to reduce global warming to 1.5 ° C, below the pre-industrial level of 2 C.
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