(task) US, China Set Carbon Pollution Goals · Environmental Management & Sustainable Development News · Environmental Leader

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http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/11/13/us-china-set-carbon-pollution-goals/

US, China Set Carbon Pollution Goals

The US and China set ambitious climate change goals on Wednesday, with President Obama pledging to cut US greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

Chinese president Xi Jinping announced targets to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 or sooner and to increase China’s non-fossil fuel share of energy to around 20 percent by 2030.

The announcement was met with praise from environmentalists and business groups.

The carbon reduction pledges show a strong economy and climate policy can coexist, said Helen Mountford, program director of the New Climate Economy project. “Businesses in China and the United States are already acting; this agreement will allow them to go further and invest more, driving down costs and promoting innovation,” she says. “We know from previous policy experience that this dynamism is likely to make the targets even easier to meet and even exceed.”

Honeywell applauded the commitments and said the company supports adoption of the clean air goals. “Technologies exist today that will help companies and government make tremendous strides immediately,” Honeywell said. “Honeywell will do our part to provide the products and technologies and to reduce even further our own emissions.”

In July 2013 Obama and Xi Jinping agreed that the countries would work together, and with other nations, to phase out hydrofluorocarbons.

Photo Credit: Pete Souza/White House

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