Three Ways U.S.-China Conflict Is Helping on Climate Change
Tension between China and the United States often has given way to progress on climate change. The world’s top two carbon polluters will discuss cooperation as top U.S. environmental official travels to Beijing this week.
Beijing's air quality monitoring station was the first stop Monday for Gina McCarthy, the top U.S. environmental official, in a weeklong trip to China for talks on how the world's top two greenhouse gas polluters can work together to tackle climate change.
With no global treaty to reduce carbon emissions in sight, the trip is an effort by President Barack Obama's administration to demonstrate that efforts at bilateral cooperation hold promise. But headlines leading up to McCarthy's visit seemed to send a different message, with the financial center of Shanghai so shrouded in acrid haze last week that schools were closed, flights were canceled, vehicles were ordered off the road, and factories were powered down.
Levels of PM 2.5—the
