As the final hours of negotiation for the COP26 final statement tick down, one of the surprising announcemenst of the past week was the Joint Declaration of the two major emitters and powers, the United States and China on the need for action. Through a 16 paragraph statement, both countries have committed to not only work jointly with each other but to commit to concrete action. The timelines for action oultined including much earlier reduction targets in the 2020s decade, well before 2035 or near the end point of 2050 for near total elimination of carbon emissions.
Amongst the key statements contained in the Declaration is a clear unambiguous recognition of the situation and the need for urgent action -
"The United States and China, alarmed by reports including the Working Group 1 Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report released on August 9th, 2021, further recognise the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. They are committed to tackling it through their respective accelerated actions in the critical decade of the 2020s, as well as through cooperation in multilateral processes, including the UNFCCC process, to avoid catastrophic impacts"
"The United States and China recall their firm commitment to work together and with other Parties to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement. The two sides also recall the Agreement's aim in accordance with Article 2 to hold global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C. In that regard, they are committed to pursuing such efforts, including by taking enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s in the context of the Paris Agreement, with the aim of keeping the above temperature limit within reach and cooperating to identify and address related challenges and opportunities'"
The Joint Declaration can be accessed at this link:
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