Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/14/2014
A climate deal reached this week between the United States and China, under which the United States commits to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and China vows to peak its emissions by 2030, has been hailed as a historic step forward by the White House, but has garnered a mixed reaction from lawmakers and industry. Under the agreement, the United States has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 and China has committed to setting targets to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and to increase non-fossil fuel energy production to 20 percent of its energy mix by 2030. “Together, the U.S. and China account for over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s joint announcement, the culmination of months of bilateral dialogue, highlights the critical role the two countries must play in addressing climate change,” according to a White House fact sheet released this week.
Rep. John Shimkus (R – Ill.) stated his views of the agreement frankly during an event hosted by The Hill magazine this week. “It is a terrible deal. It’s just ridiculous,” Shimkus said. “The frustration about this is that they compare the economies and current emissions rates and they say the emissions of China are so bad, they’re just terrible. They can’t breathe in their major cities. And they’re going to compare us to them and then drive us down? The proposal, as I understand right now, is really China gets to step on the gas while we have to slash. I mean, that’s really the deal. [China is] going to, some decade later, there’s going to be a ceiling? Are you kidding me?” Several other Congressional Republications decried the agreement following its announcement. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, soon to be Senate Majority Leader, said that the agreement was unrealistic and would increase utility costs and kill jobs. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, set to be the next Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the next Congress, called the agreement a “non-binding charade.”
One of the most important aspects of the agreement is collaboration and arguing over who is contributing more will only lead to all parties losing site of the end goal, Heather Zichal, former Deputy Advisor to the President on Energy and Climate, said at the event. “No one country is going to solve climate change alone and so the important thing is that you’re working together in coordination with other counties. We can spend a lot of time debating whether or not it should have been more aggressive or shouldn’t have been,” she said. “I think you can’t lose the forest for the trees on these issues and the fact that you have these two countries coming together to make a real commitment is a significant and an important step in the right direction.”
Environmental Groups Praise Deal
Environmental groups celebrated the deal as it represents the first time China has committed to capping CO2 emissions. The country has long been a topic of contention in U.S. climate talks with any action to reduce emissions domestically being compared to China’s larger piece of that pie. “For too long it’s been too easy for both the U.S. and China to hide behind one another,” Bob Perciasepe, President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions said in a written statement. “People on both sides pointed to weak action abroad to delay action at home. This announcement hopefully puts those excuses behind us. We’ll only avert the worst risks of climate change by acting together.”
Coal Executive Praises Agreement for Including CCS
Gregory Boyce, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Peabody Energy, the largest private sector coal company in the world, applauded the agreement for its inclusion of support for carbon capture and storage technology. "We are pleased that the U.S., China and other [Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation] ministers clearly accept the vital role coal plays in providing essential energy around the world, while global leaders express growing support for today’s advanced coal technologies and next-generation carbon capture demonstration – which the White House acknowledges is in demonstration phase,” Boyce said in a release.
Boyce also took the opportunity to critique the Unites States’ current domestic action on climate change, criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations for new and existing coal fired power plants. The new source performance standards (NSPS) mandate the use of CCS on all new-build coal-fired power plants, while the regulations for existing plants set state specific carbon emissions reduction goals and require states to develop action plans to meet those goals. “We encourage the U.S. Administration to withdraw its proposals to regulate carbon dioxide from existing and new coal plants, initiatives that are attracting increasing opposition and would needlessly drive up electricity costs. Instead, the proposals should be replaced with a technology approach in line with what was just agreed to with China to enable increased economic growth and reductions in emissions,” Boyce said.
Some Industry Officials Say Agreement Will Put U.S. At Disadvantage
Other industry officials stated that the deal would put the United States at a disadvantage economically and that it does not take give credit for reductions already made in the country. ”It’s interesting and perhaps a little ironic, if you look at what’s happening in the United States today, our carbon emissions are at a 20 year low. We’re down roughly 10 percent of where we were before,” Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said during The Hill’s event. “I think it’s a bit ironic that what you see in the deal, as the deal has been constructed, shows that we have to further our decline while at the same time our primary competitor in this case, China, is allowed to continue to increase their emissions.”
