In an attempt to circumvent President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord on Climate change, China is appealing to various states in the U.S. to ignore Trump and play along with climate change activists.
The Wall Street Journal reported that last week California Gov. Jerry Brown, a climate change zealot, was welcomed to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping. Xie Zhenhua, China’s special envoy for climate change, complained to Brown regarding Trump’s decision, “I am so deeply disappointed.”
The Journal acknowledged, “Since Mr. Trump’s decision, a coalition of a dozen U.S. states, including California, have committed to uphold America’s pledge to cut emissions 26% to 28% compared with 2005 levels.” Those states include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, twenty states and Washington, D.C., have adopted their own greenhouse gas emission targets.
Brown announced last week that California would coordinate emission-reduction programs with China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and create a joint climate research institute between California and China’s Tsinghua University.
Last Monday, the top U.S. diplomat in China, David Rank, announced he was quitting to protest Trump’s climate position.
Zhou Dadi, vice president of the Beijing-backed Energy Research Institute, admitted China could induce states to follow its lead because of the way the American system works, adding, “In the United States, local governments can play a more important role.”