Historic climate bill ‘aligns US and Australia’ in Pacific influence
One of Joe Biden’s top diplomats says a historic bill passed by the US Senate will combat climate change’s “existential threat” of rising seas in the Pacific.
One of Joe Biden’s top diplomats says a historic bill passed by the US Senate will combat climate change’s “existential threat” of rising seas in the Pacific, as America and Australia work to reclaim regional influence from China.
Deputy US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra on Monday, declaring the US and Australia were “well aligned” to deal with the climate challenges facing the region.
The US climate bill, passed on Monday AEST, will put the US on a path to slash greenhouse emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, and follows a parliamentary agreement in Australia to cut carbon emissions by 43 per cent within the same time frame. The policies are in stark contrast to those of China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, which will continue to lift its emissions until 2030.
“I certainly heard in my travels to Samoa, Tonga and Solomon Islands, that climate is such an existential threat, and it’s understood so powerfully out here,” Ms Sherman said before the meeting.
The US and Australia want to convince regional leaders, who were so critical of Australia’s climate change contributions under the former government, that China is the climate enemy, not the West.
It’s understood the pair also discussed the Taiwan security crisis, the Solomon Islands’ security pact with China, and the need to strengthen Pacific unity so other island nations don’t forge similar deals with Beijing.
Earlier, during a press conference with her Latvian counterpart, Senator Wong said she would not escalate tensions with China by commenting further on its military brinkmanship with Taiwan.
“I think what is most critical at the moment is that the temperature is lowered and calm is restored when it comes to cross-strait tensions,” she said.
A day earlier, the Chinese embassy attacked Senator Wong for a trilateral statement with the US and Japan that it described as “absolutely unacceptable … finger-pointing”. China fired at least 11 ballistic missiles towards Taiwan and Japan in the wake of US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.
Senator Wong said: “We will continue to, in a calm and considered way, articulate our national interests. And our interests are the interests of the region, and that is, (for) de-escalation.”
Senator Wong joined her US and Japanese counterparts on Saturday in declaring that China’s actions “gravely affect international peace and stability”.
But on Monday she said she would not call in Ambassador Xiao Qian to convey Australia’s views directly to Beijing.
“I will express my views publicly. If there are to be discussions with the ambassador it will generally be at departmental level.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said China’s behaviour in the Taiwan Strait was evidence of “what we’ve been warning of for the last few years”.
Clark, the thief who stole hopes of a people
Geoff Clark’s criminal downfall has prompted an outpouring of regret and anger from Aboriginal leaders and policy makers, who see him as the symbol of dysfunction in Indigenous affairs.
ALP poll chances the worst by Miles: Newspoll
David Crisafulli is set to return the LNP to majority government in Queensland for the first time in a decade, and inflict a brutal defeat on the third-term Labor government, Newspoll shows.