Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in major gas-producer Qatar on Tuesday for the final leg of a Gulf tour that has focused on securing energy supplies and promoting Japanese high-tech.
As China and the United States meet this week in Beijing, the world's two biggest carbon polluters will be looking for ways to cooperate in both domestic policy and international trade in bringing down greenhouse gas emissions as they try to recalibrate ties amid disputes over trade and security.
Europe is providing a test of whether weak governments can enact strong policies. It has set firm goals to reduce carbon emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade, before becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. European Union governments have agreed on the strategy, but they tend to paper over the short-term economic costs of the green transition. If they don’t come clean to public opinion, and explain how these costs will be shared, they may face crippling populist protests that will compromise their end goals.
Germany added 60% more onshore wind capacity in the first half of 2023 than a year earlier at a total of 1,565 megawatts (MW), but needs far more to reach its 2030 target, wind industry lobbies said on Tuesday.
This week's visit by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to China after years of diplomatic disruptions could boost cooperation between the world's two biggest carbon polluters on the key issue of methane emissions.