The China-U.S. relationship is at a moment of reckoning and so are the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. While there is no doubt that a new great power competition has broken out between the U.S and China, uncertainties abound regarding its character.Is it akin to the Cold War of the last century between the U.S. and the Soviet Union? Will any of the geopolitical flashpoints across the Indo-Pacific, including the Taiwan Strait, lead to a kinetic exchange of fire between the U.S. and China? Will the exchange of threats and allegations amidst strategic signaling through power projection, particularly in the maritime belly of the Indo-Pacific, continue while the political leadership on both sides explore ways of de-escalating any inadvertent crisis or avoidable accidents?
Close on the heels of a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping, U.S House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has, expectedly, triggered an avalanche of demarches from Beijing, and brought China-U.S. geopolitical tensions to a boil yet again.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.