Former US Vice President Al Gore is confident that China and the United States will put aside their differences at the UN climate talks in Glasgow just as they convened in 2015 to work on the Paris deal.
In an interview to be aired at the Reuters Impact Conference on Monday, Gore also said that China may surprise the world by making one or both of its emissions peak targets and carbon neutrality its top objectives.
Gore said frictions between China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas polluters, needed to be addressed.
Beijing and Washington have been at odds over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and military activity in the South China Sea.
But Gore, winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing global warming, hopes that tensions between the two may ease at the United Nations climate conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, which begins October 31.
Xi announced last month that, after similar pledges by Japan and South Korea, China will stop the construction of new coal-fired power stations abroad this year.
Without further action, extreme weather could lead to increased amounts of refugees from developing countries that could invite “xenophobia” and “populist authoritarian impulses” in the countries where they are moving, Gore said.
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