China and California rise above US trade war for action on climate change
‘Patience, imagination and perseverance’ will overcome temporary obstacles of Trump’s trade policies, says state governor
China and California are seeking to push past the trade war to shore up their joint front in the fight against climate change, with a three-day summit in San Francisco this week.
The “asymmetric” joint effort between the world’s second-biggest economy and America’s most populous state has the backing of California governor Jerry Brown and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who sent a personal message of support to Brown ahead of the summit.
But the escalating trade war is already derailing a deal for China to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, an agreement made during US President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing last year.
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The dispute may even cast a shadow over international climate talks, expected to finalise details for implementing the Paris Agreement before the end of this year, according to officials at the Global Climate Action Summit.
Convening the summit on Wednesday, an upbeat Brown dismissed the US-China trade war as a “temporary obstacle” for the two countries in developing low-carbon technologies and markets together.
“Trump is only one part, there will be something else after Trump, so we need patience, imagination and perseverance … to find a common path forward,” he said.
Brown distanced himself from the Trump administration, calling California the fifth-biggest economy after the United States, China, Japan and Germany. He said China’s investment in, and demand for, clean technologies would be crucial for California reaching its goal to go carbon-free by 2045.
