Shelve differences for common good

Sino-US cooperation on climate change before the Trump administration took power is a good example on how the two sides can resume cooperation in different fields during the Joe Biden administration.

The two countries should focus on common interests, which in the past helped them to finalize the Paris Agreement. They should also deepen cooperation to develop the green economy and ensure energy security so as to safeguard their common interests on climate issues.

Despite their divergences on how to respond to the climate challenge, the two sides avoided confrontation and pointing fingers at each other, and instead maintained contact with each other to discuss common interests, which ultimately led to the finalization of the Paris climate accord.

Since their first strategic and economic dialogue, the two sides have initiated cooperation in fields such as "clean coal", electric vehicles and renewable energy, and after 2013, they discussed the possibility of establishing cooperation mechanisms on smart power grids, forestry, low-carbon city and other areas at government, institution and company levels.

Cooperation at different levels can help create the right atmosphere for establishing and increasing contacts between senior officials of the two countries on climate issues.

Moreover, Chinese leaders' commitment to better protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions and foster green development has yielded many positive results, bringing tangible benefits to the people, and leading to fundamental changes in the evolution of not only a new development paradigm but also the modernization of national governance.

Before Trump assumed power, China and the US, despite being in different stages of development, set a good example of how to jointly fight climate change, as well as meet other global challenges.

The two countries can therefore pick up where they left four years ago and resume cooperation to address the climate issues. China has vowed to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, and the Biden administration has decided to return to the Paris Agreement and vowed to realize carbon neutrality by 2050.

So it's time the two sides shelved their ideological differences and gave full play to their respective strengths to combat climate change and, in the process, build environmentally friendly societies not only in China and the US but also the rest of the world.

Li Yanliang, a researcher in diplomatic policy studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies

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