Last night, the White House announced a historic deal with China for both nations to reduce carbon emissions dramatically. It’s especially important since one of the excuses commonly used to continue business as usual goes something like: “If the US cuts carbon without the world following suit it won’t really help. It just injures American economic interests.”
The United States and China are the world’s two biggest economies as well as greenhouse gas emitters. President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing and agreed to new commitments that could impact other nations before the climate treaty talks in Paris next year.
The US commitment is to reduce carbon emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 - which is about twice as big a cut as the current targets. The standard comes without any new restrictions on power plants or vehicles.
China may have a little tougher route since their economy is reliant on coal fired power plants at this time. China is the world’s biggest emissions emitter, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time, China has set a date at which it expects emissions to peak and taper downwards in 2030. Things could happen faster as the Chinese are addressing air pollution controls, economic reforms and a complete “energy revolution”.
Of course, some post election scuttlebutt around D.C. claims both houses will work to eliminate the existing emission standards on US coal plants.
http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/obama-just-announced-historic-climate-deal-china
Senate on EPA Rule shutdown:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/09/3590628/gop-senate-epa-rule-shutdown/