Overcoming Obstacles to U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change
Kenneth Lieberthal
Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Professor, University of Michigan
David Sandalow
Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
This report recommends ways to overcome obstacles to cooperation between the United States and China on climate change. The report is intended for senior leadership in each country, with the goal of helping them:
• understand relevant conditions in the other country
• appreciate the priorities and constraints of counterparts across the Pacific
• take action to control greenhouse gas emissions at home
• develop specific avenues of bilateral cooperation
• facilitate agreement in multilateral negotiations on these topics
Opportunities for collaboration in fighting climate change are plentiful, but moving forward at the scale needed will require high-level political support in two very different societies, each with considerable suspicion of the other. This report recommends ways to win such support and sustain it for the long term.