"Historic agreement" on emissions cuts

(Baonghean) - On Wednesday, November 12, Beijing and Washington reached an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement is considered an important turning point for current climate change and also a good sign for the climate conference to take place in Paris at the end of 2015.

China aims to reduce emissions to a minimum by 2030. Photo: Edgar Su

According to research, China and the United States are currently the two countries at the top of the list of polluting countries in the world. The annual emissions that these two countries release into the environment account for about 45% of the total amount of CO2. The White House announced that Beijing has set a target to reduce its emissions to the maximum by 2030 and pledged to try to reduce emissions before this deadline. This is the first time that China - the world's largest polluter has made a specific commitment with a specific time frame in the issue of cutting emissions that cause environmental effects. As for the United States, this country promised to reduce emissions by 26% - 28% by 2025 compared to 2005.

On Wednesday (November 12), after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, President Obama praised the agreement between the US and China on reducing emissions as “a historic agreement”. A senior US official explained, “In fact, the US and China are often seen as opposing sides in climate negotiations. The fact that these two countries are working towards the same goal will have a huge impact on this issue”; and said that the goal set by the US is “very ambitious, but achievable”. However, it is likely that the above decision will face opposition from members of Congress. It is known that after President Obama made the above statement, the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate - Mr. Mitch McConneil commented that this is an “unrealistic project”. Mr. McConneil said that this agreement will cause “energy prices to increase and the number of jobs to decrease”.

Scientists say current efforts are not enough to limit global warming. According to a report from the International Energy Agency, the Earth's temperature could rise by up to 3.4 degrees Celsius by 2030 if humans continue to consume energy at current rates. However, at the end of 2015, an annual climate conference in Paris is expected to reach an agreement to prevent the Earth's temperature from rising to 2 degrees Celsius in the future.

In late October, the European Union also reached an agreement with three targets: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990; increasing the share of renewable energy to 27%; and saving 27% of energy. However, only the first target will be made mandatory.

Chu Thanh(According to LeMonde 11/12)