Joaquin Castro: “Representative Steel and I share a lot of the same concerns about China, in fact: its human rights record; unfair…”

“Representative Steel and I share a lot of the same concerns about China, in fact: its human rights record; unfair competition; its aggression in the South China Sea, for example; its troublesome Belt and Road Initiative. However, this amendment misstates how global climate negotiations work. The United Nations climate negotiations are designed to have countries submit their own nationally determined climate mitigation goals. They are designed this way to ensure that no one can tell America what our climate policies should be. I would think that my Republican colleagues would understand and support that. We should be doing everything we can to pressure each country, particularly China, which is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, as the Representative mentioned, to upgrade its commitments and commit to more ambitious nationally determined contributions. The Biden administration and the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Secretary John Kerry, have been clear that the People's Republic of China must make stronger commitments to cutting its carbon emissions. The Government of China has said that they are targeting carbon neutrality before 2060. Well, that is clearly too late. The world needs to reach net zero by 2050 at the latest. I completely agree that the United States must put pressure on China to reach net zero at a faster pace, but arbitrarily tying it to our timeline isn't the way to do that.…”