Two of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases have taken to Twitter to debate climate policy. China questions whether the United States can implement the landmark climate change bill President Joe Biden signed into law this week.
"There is no doubt America will deliver on its promises," US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns tweeted on Wednesday, using the flag emoticon for "America." He called on China to resume suspended climate talks, writing that it was "ready".
Punchy exchanges that are part of longer exchanges on Twitter represent broader concerns. Cooperation between the United States and China is widely seen as essential to the success of global efforts to curb temperature rise. There are also those who question whether the two countries can work together due to the deterioration of relations over Taiwan.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with its own tweet on Tuesday night.
The verbal skirmish comes as part of a protest against senior U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan as China announced earlier this month that it would hold talks with the United States on climate change and several other issues. It all started with the discontinuation of
Climate change is one of the few areas of cooperation between rival countries. U.S. officials criticized China's move, with Secretary of State Anthony Brinken saying, "We don't punish America, we punish the world."
China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian last week urged the United States to "fulfill its historical responsibility and due obligation on climate change and stop looking for excuses for inaction."
The department later tweeted some of his responses, and Burns responded four days later with a tweet about the US climate bill. Using the acronym for the People's Republic of China, he concluded, "China should reconsider following its suspension of climate cooperation with the United States."
China elaborated on "Can the United States deliver?" In a second tweet, the U.S. fulfilled a rich country promise to help poor countries deal financially with climate change, and announced that it would sell a solar industry from China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region following accusations of forced labor. has suggested lifting sanctions imposed last year on exports of
Former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement was backtracked after Mr. Biden took office last year, a blow to US confidence on the issue.
Chinese experts praised some of the US legislation, but said it was overdue and not sufficient.
"Despite some landmark achievements in the bill, I fear it will not re-establish US leadership on climate change," said Tsinghua University Energy Environmental Economics Institute Professor Teng Fei said.
US Special Envoy for Climate Affairs John Kerry is pressuring China to set more ambitious climate targets. China responds that its goals are realistic given its development needs as a middle-income country, while the United States has set ambitious targets but has not achieved them.
China's ruling Communist Party typically sets conservative goals at the national level. However, these targets are sometimes exceeded as local officials pursue them diligently.
"China should be able to do better than national targets suggest," said Cory Combs, senior analyst at consulting firm Trivium China. "But, of course, all of these local plans are subject to failure or delay, so it is impossible to fully predict what the sum will be."