China Snaps Back at Biden Criticising Xi's Absence From COP26, Questions 1.5C Goal

The US president earlier criticised Russia and China over not sending high-level delegations to the COP26 summit. Biden suggested that Beijing thus failed to live up to the claims of wearing the "leadership mantle" it had made.

Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun has pushed back against criticism by US President Joe Biden, who claimed that the Chinese "didn't show up" at the climate summit and said President XI Jinping had made a "big mistake" by not coming to Glasgow in person. The envoy noted that China had sent its representatives to the summit. Zhang Jun further stressed that China had also published its plans for reducing emissions and impact on the climate ahead of the COP26 summit.

Beijing set out a goal of reaching a peak on emissions by 2030 and then achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. The country plans to start cutting its massive coal consumption in 2026 and stop increasing oil consumption between 2026 and 2030.

At the same time, the Chinese envoy to the UN snapped back at Biden noting that it was not Washington's place to teach China about climate policies and suggested that America should first get its own house in order. Zhang Jun specifically recalled the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate in 2020 under the Trump administration.

"China has been earnestly supporting climate action. We are not the one who withdrew from the Paris Agreement. The US, however, has back-pedalled its climate policies many times. Instead of blame shifting, what it should do now is to shoulder responsibility and take concrete actions".

Zhang Jun

China's Ambassador to the UN

Then-US President Donald Trump announced in 2017 that his country would be pulling out of the climate agreement as soon as it was eligible to do so. The US then formally exited the accord in November 2020. However, new US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on 20 January 2021 to have the US apply to return to the Paris Agreement as soon as possible. A month later, the nation formally returned to the ranks of the accord's signatories, which include 195 countries around the world, including China.

China Opposes Ditching 2C target in Favour of 1.5C Above Pre-Industrial Levels

Separately from China's UN ambassador, the country's climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, warned the participants of the COP26 climate summit against focusing on the target of limiting the global temperature rise by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The envoy suggested that the participants should stick to the provisions of the Paris Agreement, which suggested preventing a rise of 2C above pre-industrial levels.

"If we only focus on 1.5, we are destroying consensus and many countries would demand a reopening of the negotiations", Xie Zhenhua said.

Xie Zhenhua stressed that a failure to do so might undermine global unity in achieving the climate goals and thus thwart the efforts at limiting emissions and stopping the world's temperatures from rising.

The participants of the COP26 summit have placed an emphasis on preventing the planet's temperature from rising by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, citing alleged potential environmental disasters and harsh consequences for global economies. The summit's participants see the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere as the key to stopping the spike in temperature.