China and the United States agree that climate change is a crisis whipping up worsening droughts and storms across the planet. Yet escalating tensions over trade, security and human rights threaten to overshadow efforts between the world’s top two greenhouse gas polluters to stop global temperatures from hitting catastrophic levels. Leaders from nearly 200 countries will try to agree on intensified efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and money to help the poorest nations prepare for the effects of global warming. Hopes for a breakthrough in Glasgow rest heavily on whether China and the United States can build momentum. But on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned Mr. Kerry that antagonism from the United States on other fronts could hobble climate cooperation.

Source: International New York Times September 02, 2021 03:22 UTC