John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, left, and Xie Zhenhua, China special envoy for climate, meet for a news conference at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Biden administration has adopted many conciliatory policies toward Beijing has part of its strategy of competing and cooperating with Beijing, despite rising tensions on the security and economic front. Climate policy is a particular area where the administration has sought to work with China – among the most polluted states in the world.
To reach those climate goals, the United States will be forced to heavily increase its dependence on Chinese materials and products for the green energy transition. The two views have resulted in radically different approaches to how the United States and the rest of the world will use fuel resources in the coming decades, with the climate activists on the left calling for the use of cheap and subsidized Chinese-built infrastructure such as solar panels, wind turbines, grid storage and batteries for electric vehicles.