Source: Ming Pao
Author: Ouyang Wu
Northern China has recently encountered rare high temperature weather. The Beijing -Tianjin -Hebei region, which has always been suitable for summer, has exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for many days in June and entered the "roasting mode".On the other side of the Pacific, from the south of Arizona to the coast of Florida, in many places, it has continued to suffer from heat waves.It is aware that high temperatures are no longer exclusive to equatorial countries or southern regions, but a new normal in the world.
Last year, the world experienced unprecedented hot summer. The large -scale high temperature days in the central and eastern regions of China were 79 days. The comprehensive intensity of high temperature events was the strongest since 1961 with a complete meteorological observation record.It shrinks nearly 70%within a month.Europe has encountered the worst drought in 500 years, and at least 15,000 people have died of high temperature.Multi -countries in the world refresh high temperature records, and frequent electricity limits, heat irritation, and frequent mountain fires have become an indelible earth memory in 2022.
The global climate report released by the World Meteorological Organization pointed out that the global average temperature last year was about 1.15 degrees Celsius higher than before industrialization.The Paris Agreement reached in December 2015 set the global average temperature increase this century than before the industrial revolution level did not exceed 2 degrees. The ideal goal was to control the temperature within 1.5 degrees.
The temperature increases by 2 degrees, which will pose a long -term threat to many large coastal cities. Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong, and Taizhou in China will be the first.In addition to threatening human survival, climate warming will also severely create crops, exacerbating economic crises and the differentiation of the rich and poor.
The 2023 Global Risk Report released by the World Economic Forum lists the "natural disaster and extreme weather events" as the second of the top ten risks facing the world in the next two years.Powerful is the biggest risk.What is symbolic is that, compared with the first Davos Forum in 1971, the amount of snow in Davos, Switzerland has decreased by more than 40%.
If China -US coordinates global climate governance into empty talk
Climate change is no longer a distant future, but a "gray rhino" that has broken into human real life. Individuals have felt its existence and threat.But this "gray rhino" has not stood under the spotlight.
Geographical politics, economic recovery, security crisis ... Each item is an explicit issue in this era; but the speed of climate change is fast, reminding people to re -sort that the topic of the issue is slow.Coping "qi change" has become a matter of "heavy" and "urgent".
The most effective way to slow down global climate heating is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.As the world's two largest economies, the carbon emissions co -authored by China and the United States account for more than 40%of the world's total.This means that without the coordination and cooperation of China and the United States, global climate governance is a empty words.
As early as 2003, China and the United States established a climate change working group.In 2014 and 2015, China and the United States jointly issued a joint statement of climate change in China and the United States, and a joint statement of the first climate change in China and the United States, laying a good foundation for the Paris Agreement.However, with the changes in the judgment of the United States on China and the exacerbation of the Sino -US game, the relationship between the two countries has turned sharply, and the cooperation between qi changes is progressing in bumps.In August last year, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, regardless of China's strong opposition to the "channeling" regardless of the Chinese side, and China immediately announced that eight countermeasures, including the suspension of climate change in China and the United States, responded.It is a pity that the "Qi Change cooperation" was forced to interrupt for other "stumbling blocks".
Coping the window period is getting narrower and narrower
The author thinks that the United States has seen Sino -US relations with the accurate "three -point method" of the United States, and the climate change form is attributed to cooperation and hopes to continue to promote it, and it is not realistic to continue to curb China in other fields.Looking at the history of climate change cooperation between the two countries, the degree of cooperation on the "qi change" issue is positively correlated with the good or bad relationship between the two countries.
Although Tesla CEO Elon Musk proposed the Mars immigration plan, for a long time in the future, the earth is still the first homeland for human beings.Faced with climate change, every country is on a boat.American international political scholar Joseph S. Nye pointed out that in terms of response to climate change and ecological interdependence, physical and biological laws are simply impossible, because no country can solve these multinational problems with their own power.
"Qi becomes gray rhinos" accelerated, and the window period left by humans is getting narrower.The political climate of decoupling, broken chain, and differentiation will inevitably be not conducive to solving the problem in joint efforts and damage the efforts of countries to pay about the problems of human vital interests.It is rumored that John Kerry, a special envoy of the US Presidential Climate, is expected to visit China in the near future.Has global influence.In the final analysis, the improvement of ecological climate eventually depends on the changes in political climate.
The author is current affairs commentator
