11 Nov 2020 Biden’s Paris Pledge Provides Chinese Advantage Over America

While the United States formally left the Paris Agreement on climate change on November 4, a victory for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign would lead to a quick reversal. This is just what the Chinese government wants. And it would be getting this victory on the cheap.

Abiding by the demands of the agreement has wasted taxpayers’ money and threatened the nation’s gains in energy independence. In a report published by the Capital Research Center (CRC), National Center Senior Fellow Bonner Cohen, Ph.D., notes that there are many pitfalls with Biden’s commitment to obligate Americans to the agreement yet again:

Like the Soviets before them, Chinese communists seek to use international agreements and treaties as a conduit for constraining American military and economic power. The Paris Climate Agreement heavily restricts U.S. energy development, which is what Beijing wants. This has both national security and economic implications.

The CRC report alleges that American environmental groups have assisted the Chinese government in pushing the Paris Climate Agreement – with the Chinese seeking American compliance as a means of gaining a strategic advantage. During the Obama Administration (where Biden served as vice president), groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are said to have worked with the State Department to find ways to enforce the treaty even though treaties require the “advice and consent” of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate in order to be officially enacted.

Bonner says:

NRDC’s opposition to America’s fossil-fuel development aligns with China’s goal of crippling its primary global rival. The Paris Agreement constrains American energy development, which is exactly what the NRDC and Beijing want.

To read Kevin Mooney’s entire article about China, the United States and the Paris Agreement, click here.