Belt and Road participants call for full implementation of Paris Agreement

Beijing, 15 May 2017 — Participants in China’s Belt and Road initiative have called on all parties that ratified the Paris Agreement to implement it in full, as part of a communique to be released following China’s Belt and Road forum. The document comes as top aides of US President Donald Trump clash over whether to quit the landmark climate accord.

In reaction to the communique, Li Shuo, climate policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, said:

“As the Trump administration ponders its approach to the Paris Agreement, the signal from Beijing should be clearly noted. While China is taking an active stance on the global stage, a move to weaken the global climate regime will alienate the US. It will also harm the delicate bilateral relationship between Beijing and Washington.”

The communique represents China’s latest effort to take on a larger climate leadership role. Last Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to defend the Paris Agreement during a phone call with French President-elect Emmanuel Macron [2]. In January, Xi urged Trump to remain in the agreement during a speech at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos [3].

Last Friday, Greenpeace released a statement calling for environmental accountability to be prioritized within China’s Belt and Road initiative [4].

The statement urged that environmental impact assessments be integrated into the Belt and Road initiative, that a wide range of stakeholders be included in the design of the evaluation process and that companies with poor environmental records abroad be named within China.