124. We Need To Talk About China
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2021
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
China.
On one hand, the country is the world’s largest source of carbon emissions, an economic and political powerhouse resting on a thick cloud of hydrocarbon pollution, contrary to the goals of the Paris Agreement. On the other hand, President Xi Jinping has set the stage for China to emerge as an environmental leader, with the highest reforestation rate in the world; it makes and buys more electric cars than any other country by far; and is the world’s top renewable energy investor for the eighth consecutive year, including manufacturing 80% of solar cells globally.
It is clear that China has the power to determine whether we can limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius. As we head into the COP26 international climate discussions, all eyes will be on the indomitable diplomatic skills of China and America’s special envoys for climate, Xie Xanhau and John Kerry, who brought about significant pact between the world’s two top polluters that significantly influenced the success of the Paris Agreement.
This week we talk with Peggy Liu, a leading catalyst of a greener China and Former Prime Minister of Australia and President of the Asia Society, Kevin Rudd, who offers deep insight into China’s climate goals and trajectory of travel, gleaned over 35 years of working with the Chinese Government.
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Thank you to our guests this week, Peggy Liu and Kevin Rudd!
Peggy Liu
Chair of JUCCCE, board member of Drawdown, Governor of Hillary Institute
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Kevin Rudd
Former PM of Australia, President of the Asia Society.
Asia Society
Asia Society Policy Institute
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Outrageant Optimism, I'm Tom Ravikarnak. Today, a special episode |
| 0:17.2 | on China on the eve of COP26. Thanks for being here. |
| 0:25.3 | So, hi everybody, it's Tom here, Christiana Paul and I are on the train to Scotland today. |
| 0:30.2 | We will see many of you there no doubt and we will be producing episodes from the COP itself |
| 0:34.7 | over the coming two weeks. But on the eve of the negotiations, we wanted to bring you |
| 0:39.0 | a deep dive and a conversation about China. China, of course, is the world's fastest growing |
| 0:45.1 | economy and largest emitter of greenhouse gases. China has tremendous potential to either |
| 0:50.4 | help the global community achieve the aim of limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees or |
| 0:56.1 | to push it quickly out of our collective reach. China's growth as a major polluter and leader |
| 1:02.3 | in green technology and energy is a tale of two halves. The climate action tracker recently |
| 1:06.8 | found that Xi Jinping's pledged to reach carbon neutrality before 2060 in itself lowered |
| 1:12.9 | global warming potentials by 0.2 to 0.3 degrees. The single largest change that any individual |
| 1:19.4 | policy has recorded. This is the power that China's domestic and international policies |
| 1:24.0 | can wield. However, as we know already, it's not enough and we need to go further. China |
| 1:30.6 | is often portrayed in Western media as defensive, closed, focused only on economic gain at any |
| 1:35.3 | cost while jostling for power on the world stage. The truth is that China is not always |
| 1:41.0 | easily understood by Western audiences. So today, as world leaders gather for the start |
| 1:46.2 | of the G20 in Rome and COP26 kicks off on Sunday, Xi Jinping's conspicuous absence |
| 1:52.1 | is dampening hopes for any updates from China on its 2060 goal, which if not amended while |
| 1:58.3 | an improvement on where we were before are still not sufficient and will threaten our chances |
| 2:04.0 | of limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees. So today, we do a deep dive into the context |
| 2:09.1 | and current situation of China and how they are approaching this issue. It's a dual |
... |
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