US and China Inch Closer on Climate Ahead of COP28 Summit
Progress at the global gathering in Dubai will depend greatly on the world’s two biggest emitters and the veteran negotiators representing them.
Photo illustration: 731; Photos: Alamy (1); Bloomberg (1)
There’s been an unwritten rule during the past decade of climate diplomacy: Good things can happen when the world’s two biggest economies are aligned. If the US and China can again come together in the quest to slash greenhouse gas emissions, there’s hope that progress can be made at COP28 in Dubai.
To lay the groundwork for the summit, which starts later this month, the two countries’ top climate negotiators met this week in Rancho Mirage, California. Five days of talks, originally set to last just four, concluded Wednesday without yielding an immediate public breakthrough, though the US touted “common ground on a number of issues” and China said there were “positive results.”