by Tom Rogan at The Washington Examiner
John Kerry’s art of the deal goes something like this: He makes a laborious public spectacle of his herculean efforts to reach an agreement, and then, he gives up anything he has to in order to get a deal — any deal. Kerry then proclaims that the deal is world-changing as the other party completely ignores its commitments.
As secretary of state, Kerry did this repeatedly under the Obama administration. Most notable was his negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal, wherein France was the only voice calling for tougher restrictions and a rather important focus on ballistic missiles. Kerry also negotiated worthless agreements with Russia, nearly all of which then fell apart .
Kerry has now added another laurel to his crown. On Wednesday, at the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Scotland, he agreed to a truly ludicrous deal with China. China’s negotiator Xie Zhenhua must be out celebrating in Glasgow’s famously raucous pub scene with his team — he could not have been blessed with a better adversary.
Kerry has just helped Beijing repair the damage done by Xi Jinping’s absence from the summit. Xie has won a major public relations victory here at almost no cost to his nation’s interests. Indeed, Kerry appears to have promised to pay China billions of dollars for a new rhetorical argument over climate change and little else.
The biased media coverage of COP26 aside, the truth is that Kerry and President Joe Biden ignore the reality that it is folly for the United States to make dramatic carbon cuts that hurt our economy and our poorest citizens the most unless there is simultaneous action by China. Considering that China emits twice as much carbon as the U.S., Beijing’s bold action is critical. Perhaps Kerry is counting on this empty commitment as a fig leaf to bring home and make the case that China is acting.
But Kerry’s declaration imposes exactly zero binding commitments upon China. So, while the U.S. pushes ahead with comprehensive steps to restrict fossil fuels, cap methane emissions, dramatically boost subsidies, and enforce renewable energy mandates, China says it will take “enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s … in accordance with different national circumstances.” The vagueness aside, don’t forget that Xi faces rising pressure to expand dirty coal plants in China.
What price has the U.S. paid for this masterpiece of meaningless verbosity? “Both countries recognize the importance of the commitment made by developed countries to the goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion per year by 2020 and annually through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries.”
Seeing as how China regards itself as a “developing” country…
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