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The White House says the U.S. and China will resume cooperation on climate. Meanwhile, a COP27 draft includes a “loss and damages” fund, and five Senate Democrats want answers on a mine safety rule.
This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Someone forward you this newsletter? White House: China climate talks restarting
The U.S. and China will once again collaborate on issues related to climate change, according to a White House readout of a meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The readout said that Biden “underscored” that the countries need to work together to address global challenges including climate change.
How’d it go? “The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues,” the readout stated.
Additional issues that the U.S. and China would work together on include debt relief, health security and food security, according to the White House.
The resumption of climate collaboration comes after the countries stopped working together on the issue earlier in the year. China halted its cooperation with the U.S. after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan in early August.
How we got here: The two countries had agreed to work together on climate change during last year’s global climate summit, known as COP26. The partnership is notable since China and the U.S. are respectively the world’s largest and second-largest emitters of greenhouse gasses. This year’s conference started this month.
Biden and Xi met during the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. UN releases ‘loss and damage’ negotiation draft
A draft agreement for the international COP27 climate summit includes funds for “loss and damages,” a long-sought provision paying reparations to countries on the frontlines of environmental disaster.
The draft, released Monday, must be agreed to by the nearly 200 nations attending the conference, and will likely undergo major amendments if it survives that process at all.
What’s in it? Under the draft text, participating countries would begin a two-year implementation process and be ready to put a funding mechanism into action no later than COP29 in 2024.
The draft includes an option whereby a funding arrangement, which could involve a United Nations funding facility, is ready to be implemented by November 2024.
