The US and China announced an agreement to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by the years 2025 and 2030. The rhetoric of the agreement is ambitious, but there are no concrete details of the agreement and no binding enforcement either. Perhaps a good place for the US to start addressing the issue of carbon burning would be to end official subsidies for the oil and gas industries. Recent data indicate that the US gave $5.2 billion in subsidies for the oil industry to explore for new sources of oil and natural gas. It does not really make any sense to write agreements to reduce the burning of carbon fuels while at the same time encouraging the discovery of new reserves of carbon fuels to burn.
The agreement is a breakthrough. At the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, China adamantly refused to set emission limits for itself, arguing that such limits would compromise its ability to develop economically. The change of heart represents an important opening for the world, since China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Without its participation, any agreement would fail to arrest the process of climate change. Perversely, China’s refusal also gave opponents of emission controls in the US leverage: they argued that the US did not need limits since China would not agree anyway. Now, the argument is no longer valid, but it does not appear as if US opposition is going to change its position. The incoming Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell just stated that he was “distressed” at the US-China deal. He is quoted as saying:
“The agreement requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc on my state and other states around the country.”
It appears as if the US Congress may prevent the US-China agreement from being implemented.
World Politics News 
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