China and the United States should proceed from easier topics to more difficult ones, seeking new paradigms of interaction under new circumstances. Success in climate cooperation, if achieved, may serve as a demonstration of feasibility for other areas.

China’s lack of environmental regulations has been fingered as a culprit in accelerating the climate crisis, but by digging into the nation’s opaque legal process, changes have been made quietly and consistently towards accountability in pollution and waste.

Millions of people around the world are facing significant adversity. Governments must provide adequate financial and social protection, so that the poor and marginalized do not feel they must choose between protecting their health and providing for their families. And they must address the deeper social inequalities that the pandemic has exacerbated.

The world needs to come up with a strong, multilateral solution for combatting climate change, and China's backing in this effort is essential.

As long as booming economic growth is seen as the key to enduring legitimacy and political success, it may be politically impossible to avoid catastrophic global warming. There are no “American” or “Chinese” emissions. There are simply carbon emissions.

Historically, international development cooperation without financing arrangements often had no future. Although the Paris Conference opens now, there has been no systemic progress on climate financing. If developed countries fail to make clear arrangements on how to finance the $100 billion target, developing countries may well refuse to sign on the final agreement. It is therefore essential for the parties to reach a realistic and politically acceptable financing scheme.

Beijing’s air pollution – and the stark contrast between how the rich and poor are able to respond to the problem, is a theme of developing economics. To address the current structural imbalance Barbier suggests tackling the twin problems of excessive environmental degradation and insufficient human capital, which he calls a “Balanced Wealth Strategy.”

China’s recently announced cap-and-trade system to limit emissions is a positive development, but not new. China’s emissions trading system (ETS) has seen some capping, and very little trading. Additional challenges lie ahead in the pricing of carbon and introduction of unified measurement, reporting, and verification systems.

Five years after Copenhagen, we see today an unprecedented global effort to secure a successful outcome for the global climate summit to be held in Paris this December. Much progress has been made. But much more still needs to be done. It will also require a deep attitudinal change for all countries on the core, underlying question of sustainable development.