Duke environmental experts called the China-United States agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades a major step toward curbing climate change by the world's two biggest polluters.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the landmark climate change agreement Wednesday in China. The deal includes a specific framework for reducing carbon emissions in the U.S. and for stopping emissions growth in China.
"The new U.S.-China climate deal is hugely important -- really essential -- to any success in global climate policy," said Jonathan Wiener, professor of law and environmental policy, and the author of a 2003 book foreseeing and advocating such U.S.-China climate cooperation.
"The U.S. and China are the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, but neither was covered by the targets in the Kyoto Protocol, which ran from 1997-2012."
Wiener added that in 1990, the U.S. emitted twice as much as China, but China rapidly surpassed the U.S. by 2006. Today China emits about twice as much as the U.S., he said.
"So the U.S. and China are the indispensable actors for global climate action. And this new deal is especially impressive because, in addition to advancing U.S. policy, it's the first time China has agreed to cap its total emissions."
Each country comes to the agreement with different economic, demographic and environmental circumstances, so the deal will require varied paths to achieve long-term reductions, said Brian Murray, director of the Environmental Economics Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
“China is in a situation where decisions must be made as it adds new energy and industrial infrastructure to the country's still rapidly growing economy," Murray said. "The U.S. will rely more on replacing existing infrastructure, such as fossil-fuel-burning power plants with lower carbon alternatives.
"This essentially forms the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s greenhouse gas policy with proposed rules to limit greenhouse gases from existing power plants.”
The political ramifications at home could also be enormous, said Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute.
“Inaction by China has long been a key U.S. justification for resisting U.S. climate policy, and credible action by China may slay that political dragon,” Profeta said.