{"id":1517,"date":"2021-04-22T15:20:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T19:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/news\/dall_ambasciata\/2021\/04\/huffpost-2\/"},"modified":"2021-04-22T15:20:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T19:20:58","slug":"huffpost-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ambwashingtondc.esteri.it\/en\/news\/dall_ambasciata\/2021\/04\/huffpost-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Varricchio interview with HuffPost (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

– by Akbar Shahid Ahmed, HuffPost –<\/em><\/p>\n

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One month after U.S. and Chinese officials publicly attacked each other at their first summit of the Biden administration, the two governments issued a rare joint statement on April 17 saying they share a major goal: tackling \u201cthe climate crisis\u2026 with the seriousness and urgency that it demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commitment offered a big reason for optimism about the global fight against climate change. Coming just before President Joe Biden\u2019s high-profile international climate summit on April 22 and 23, the pledge suggested that the world\u2019s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases can stay on the same page on climate issues even as they argue over a sprawling array of other subjects, from human rights to business practices.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely what other countries and many experts want \u2015 particularly as Biden crafts a foreign policy that is largely skeptical of China, reflecting the views of most U.S. officials and lawmakers from both parties, and as Chinese leadership grows warier of Washington.<\/p>\n

Smaller nations that cannot do as much to limit global warming with their own policies are relying on cooperation between the two world powers as the planet\u2019s best hope to prevent a temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial average temperatures. Once that limit is crossed, frequent catastrophes like dramatic flooding and severe weather events become inevitable, scientists say.<\/p>\n

To Armando Varricchio, Italy\u2019s outgoing ambassador to the U.S., Biden\u2019s outreach to China on climate is a vital first step.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe salute the fact\u201d that John Kerry, Biden\u2019s special envoy for climate issues, traveled to China, Varricchio told HuffPost in an interview last week. \u201cWe really welcome his personal engagement. You cannot tackle climate change unless China, as one of the greatest polluters, comes to the table and shares the same concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varricchio hosted a Feb. 19 event with Kerry to commemorate the U.S.\u2019s reentry to the Paris agreement on slashing global emissions.<\/p>\n

Some national security analysts have suggested that by prioritizing climate issues in U.S.-China relations, Kerry could push Biden to make concessions to Beijing on matters like ambitious Chinese territorial claims \u2015 and Republicans are keen to present Biden as soft on Beijing.<\/p>\n

Varricchio \u2015 whose country will co-lead this year\u2019s United Nations climate change conference \u2015 said he doesn\u2019t buy the narrative that climate diplomacy is a sign of American weakness on other fronts and that U.S.-China disagreements might stymie collaboration against global warming.<\/p>\n

\u201cKerry\u2019s visit takes place after\u2026 saber-rattling, but now we do know for sure that China wants to find a channel of communication,\u201d the ambassador said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will offer China the opportunity to show their readiness to be part of global governance. This is something that China desperately wants. I reverse the narrative: climate change as an opportunity rather than leverage\u201d that can be used by either side in negotiations on other concerns.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government has recently emphasized to officials across China that it wants to hit its highest level of emissions by 2030 and then begin slashing them with the goal of reaching net zero by 2060. President Xi Jinping added heft to those statements in a speech published on the front page of the state-run People\u2019s Daily last month saying that peaking emissions this decade offered a \u201cbig test\u201d of the Communist Party\u2019s ability to govern.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Chinese state media said Xi will participate in Biden\u2019s climate summit, along with the 39 other world leaders invited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason why we shouldn\u2019t give credit to China that it is in their own interest and the interest of the Chinese people to tackle what is becoming a very, very serious problem domestically,\u201d Varricchio said, citing the environmental toll of China\u2019s dramatic economic growth in recent decades. \u201cClimate change is a great opportunity for that big nation to show responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S.-China climate cooperation will not determine how each of the countries designs its own policies to limit emissions. But experts say that by collaborating in how they use their international sway, particularly in their dealings with other nations, Beijing and Washington can jointly make a big difference in capping the extent of global warming.<\/p>\n

Amid Kerry\u2019s diplomacy, China skeptics are busy, too: Within weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to take up hawkish bipartisan legislation targeting China\u2019s global influence, and activists are pushing the Biden administration and private companies to work to end China\u2019s brutal mass detention program in the western region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

Varricchio, whose nation became the first top Western economy to join a global Chinese infrastructure effort but has also supported European Union sanctions on Beijing over human rights concerns, said designing a balanced approach to China is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot avoid having good trade relations with the largest market on earth,\u201d the diplomat told HuffPost. \u201cThe point is that you want to have a level playing field, you want to share rules, and then you don\u2019t want to isolate trade and business relations from the broader agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot and we don\u2019t want to close our eyes in the face of open and blatant violations of human rights,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is not something different, this is part of a broad agenda with a great power like China \u2015 it is a complex equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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