Record-breaking floods blamed on climate change left more than 300 people dead in China’s Henan province in July
Beijing rebuffs US proposal to accelerate climate efforts, including public commitment to stop financing of coal-fired power plants.
In a report published on Friday, the Hong Kong-based newspaper said that the talks also got entangled in the debate on human rights, after Washington recently targeted Beijing’s solar power industry over allegations of forced labour of minority Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Flooding due to the impact of Hurricane Ida in the United States
“China already has its own plans and road map for achieving its climate goals,” Chinese leaders told US climate envoy John Kerry, the report quoted a source as saying.
The collapse of talks came at a critical time when the world’s two largest economies were grappling with the deadly consequences of climate change, including the recent deadly flooding in New York, and the torrential rain that hit several Chinese cities in July and August and killed hundreds of people.
China and the US are also the world’s top two polluters, producing 10 million and 5.4 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019, according to Climate Trade.