Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/2/2015
Following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent announcement that his nation will institute a cap and trade program by 2017, members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at a hearing this week questioned China’s commitment to the plan. The emissions trading system, announced during Xi’s visit to the White House last week, will be wide-reaching, covering key industry sectors such as iron and steel, power generation, chemicals, building materials, paper manufacturing, and nonferrous metals.
Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) expressed doubt that the Chinese government would implement such a program. Inhofe noted recent Chinese cyberattacks on the United States as a reason to question the country’s honesty. “Right now there is a hearing going on that we’re missing, the Armed Services Committee, the whole hearing is about China, what they are doing to us in terms of cybersecurity. They haven’t kept their word on any of this stuff and now we’re lauding the virtues of China who is making all these commitments on what they’re going to do, it’s kind of interesting,” Inhofe said.
Ranking Member Barbra Boxer (D-Calif.) was quick to point out that Inhofe earlier in the hearing had said the problem of carbon pollution was not American, but Chinese. “The people on your side of the aisle have said ‘do nothing until China pledges to do something’ and China pledges to do something and you’re the same old Johnny One-Note here,” Boxer said.
Boxer went on to note that while she does not trust China, it is of little importance in the greater scheme of things. “I don’t trust China,” Boxer said. “I don’t trust them with the safety of the world and the planet and therefore it is imperative that, regardless of what China says or does, that America … not walk away from our responsibility.”
China’s trustworthiness is insignificant in the greater debate about the United States’ responsibility to take climate action, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said. “It seems like nation after nation is saying that yes, as part of the global community we have to take on a significant role of global stewardship … it’s in that context that the U.S. should not only do its part but be leader in the stewardship of the planet,” he said, later noting that, “this isn’t about trusting any one particular nation.”