Ranking Member Graves’ Statement on China’s Climate Goal

WASHINGTON — Ranking Member Garret Graves issued the following statement regarding General Secretary Xi Jinping’s announced climate goal:

“If we have learned anything this past year, China cannot be trusted. Given the General Secretary’s blatant mistruths throughout his speech, it is difficult to view his climate pledge as nothing more than a public relations stunt, designed to placate the world as it struggles to recover from the pandemic. Even if Xi meant what he said about a long-term emissions goal, current Chinese policy is at odds with achieving it. Their actions are clear and unabated. China emits more greenhouse gases than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. For every ton of emissions reduced by the United States, China has increased its emissions by four tons, undermining any global progress.

“Unfortunately, Democrats will continue to ignore the facts coming out of China and will likely praise this empty promise. Make no mistake, Democrats — as they have done since Kyoto — will use this announcement to justify poor policy decisions that will hurt U.S. competitiveness, export American jobs, and increase global emissions.” 

BACKGROUND:

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly that China “will never seek hegemony, expansion, or sphere of influence,” which is remarkably at odds with the facts — most notably Beijing’s power grab in Hong Kong, persecution of the Uighurs, threats toward Taiwan, and military aggression on the border with India and in the South China Sea. Blatantly absent was China taking any responsibility whatsoever for the current pandemic that has disrupted the global economy and resulted in the deaths of roughly one million people so far.

Xi also promised that China will “aim to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.” His statement was met with praise by many environmentalists and foreign observers who called it a “game changer.”

Studies before the pandemic suggested that China would reach an emissions level of about 15 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which is roughly three times that of the United States in a business-as-usual scenario. While Chinese emissions plummeted in the early months of 2020, there has been a surge past pre-coronavirus levels year-on-year. 

Achieving carbon neutrality for China (after peaking emissions in 2030) in such a short timeframe is incredibly unlikely, even in a best-case scenario with the advancement of breakthrough technologies. China would be required to cut annual emissions by 480 million metric tons every single year — roughly equivalent to cutting more than the UK’s worth of emissions every year. In addition, China’s carbon sinks in 2014 were estimated at 1.1 gigatons — less than 10 percent relative to their emissions.

China’s ability to achieve such reductions is also hindered by a poor environmental enforcement and compliance regime. Just last year, for example, China was caught cheating on illegal production of dangerous ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a clear violation of its commitments under the Montreal Protocol.

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