When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped of the plane in Beijing on February 20, the city was covered in freshly fallen snow. This snowfall broke a three-month drought in Northern China, but the event was not a miracle. The snow was manmade, triggered by chemical rockets launched into the atmosphere. This weather event marked the beginning of Clinton’s tour, which was scheduled to fall on the anniversary of Richard Nixon’s historic first visit.
One of the main topics to be discussed during the meeting is climate change and carbon emissions. The United States has expressed an interest in working with China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, to develop a plan for combating climate change. Finding a common approach to the problem, however, may not be easy.
A stumbling block in past negotiations has been China’s insistence that it should be considered a “developing nation,” which would allow for greater levels of emissions under agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol. The Bush White House opposed such classification, arguing that China should be held to the same standards as industrialized nations.
Despite challenges, there is hope that the new administration will be able to reach some compromise where others have not. A spokeswoman from China’s foreign ministry indicated that a new compromise may be possible, stating that “strengthening cooperation on climate change is in the interest of the two countries…we would like to work with the US to make concrete progress on this issue.”
Finding such a compromise, one that would that would allow the world’s two greatest producers of greenhouse gasses to work together, is integral to forming an effective international effort towards fighting climate change.
