Obama has secured climate concessions from China and India as part of those UN talks. A similar deal with Canada could help offset the anticipated environmental damage from the TransCanada Corp. pipeline, responding to project opponents.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/u-s-said-to-tell-canada-its-climate-goal-may-play-keystone-role
What do you think about this?
First off, Obama did not secure any concessions from China. China said they would cut emissions starting in 2030 but that there is really nothing keeping them from holding that promise fifteen years from now particularly when they have to answer to their own internal interests.
Even if the central government had an all-consuming drive to achieve this, economists say it must provide the proper economic incentives to local bureaucrats who are pivotal to executing policies on the ground.
“The feasibility of doing [this] depends on the local bureaucrats, so if the local bureaucrats resist then nothing can be done,” Xu Chenggang, professor who is a specialist in China’s economic development at the University of Hong Kong, tells TIME. “[It doesn’t] matter how strong the leader is, to get things done really depends on incentives.”
Xu explains that China’s three decades of robust economic expansion were only possible because local officials were able to profit from the country’s rapid transformation into an industrial powerhouse. However, questions remain over whether there will be as much money to go around during a transition to a greener economy.
“In turns out it’s very, very difficult to find a scheme which is going to give local bureaucrats sufficient incentives to take care of their environment,” says Xu.
And even then, activists say the world’s two largest emitters of CO2 have yet to commit to the types of policies needed to reverse the effects of climate change.
http://time.com/3580241/us-china-experts-climate-change-emissions-deal-apec/
