(Wellington) The leaders of the countries of the Pacific region begin a virtual summit on Friday, which will respond to an ambitious discourse on environmental matters and chart a path of recovery from the pandemic.
The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) brings together officials from 21 countries, including US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, through screens.
The meeting takes place in parallel with COP26, the UN climate summit, which is due to end on Friday and is fueling discussions, in particular on fossil fuel subsidies.
On the sidelines of the event hosted by New Zealand, Xi stressed the need for a post-COVID-19 economic recovery that fuels “green, low-carbon and sustainable development.”
“In Asia-Pacific, we need to make the recovery from the pandemic green and we need to take the lead in a scientific response to climate change,” he said.
For South Korean President Moon Jae-in, switching to clean energy sources represents nothing less than a “great transformation of civilization” affecting all of humanity.
The main climate decision announced by APEC members so far is a deal to promote a freeze on fossil fuel subsidies, an idea that APEC leaders first discussed more than 10 years ago. years, without succeeding in implementing it. This issue was also highlighted at COP26.
“Disastrous consequences”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who chairs the virtual summit, urged “to be more ambitious”.
“We would of course like to see a world without fossil fuel subsidies in our economies, this has long been New Zealand’s position, and one that we will continue to promote,” she said, warning that ” if the world is not ready to take strong action on climate change, then the world must be prepared for the disastrous consequences of climate change ”.
Participants are due to issue a statement on Saturday detailing the summit’s results, at a press conference led by Mr.me Ardern.
Lesley Hughes, from the Australian NGO Climate Council, believes the document will need to contain a roadmap for real change if APEC is to appear credible on the subject.
“We would like to see some sort of reasonable transition out of fossil fuels, and not just a freeze on new subsidies,” she said. “We would like to see as much numerical detail as possible, such as the exact amount of these fossil fuel subsidies in each country. And also a calendar. A statement without the exact year in which it will be made is just empty words ”.
APEC leaders refrained from publicly criticizing other countries’ climate record at this year’s meeting, but Mr.me Hughes assures that countries seen as reluctant to implement changes risk being heavily criticized behind the scenes.
“I expect Australia is certainly under enormous pressure at COP26, as it is still ranked at the bottom of the pack when it comes to climate action,” she said.
Avoiding a Cold War
In the background of this summit: the growing competition between the United States and China, the two main economic and military powers in the region.
We could see a brief taste of the highly anticipated virtual summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, which could be held on Monday.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have mounted around issues of Taiwan, human rights and trade.
The Chinese air force last month carried out a record number of incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone.
Xi warned of “cold war” context in Asia-Pacific region on Thursday at virtual trade conference on the sidelines of APEC summit.
“Attempts to create ideological cleavages or form geopolitically restricted circles are doomed to failure,” he said.
“The Asia-Pacific region cannot and must not fall back into the confrontations and divisions of the Cold War,” he added.