Barack Obama’s choice of destination for his first post-election trip reflects his pivot to Asia. This potentially friction-laden strategy needs to be balanced by pursuing the opportunities for co-operation, especially in US-China relations. Climate change would be a natural starting point and China should take the lead. Consider why and how.
Domestic problems will naturally occupy China’s new leaders. But they ignore at their peril one of the biggest external threats to China’s long-term development: climate change. Whether it is the shrinking of the Himalayan glacier and the resulting pressure on water and agriculture, or the threat to coastal cities such as Shanghai or urban pollution from carbon, China is extremely vulnerable.
Worse, this vulnerability risks becoming an inevitability if the west decides, in Simon Kuper’s words, “to wing it, run the risk of climatic catastrophe, and hope that it is mostly faraway people in poor countries who will suffer”. The west believes it has a greater capacity to adapt to climate change. China must therefore act not just for its own sake but also to prod the reluctant west, especially the US, to act to prevent climate change.