Kicking the Habit: US and China Must Drop Fossil Fuel Addiction | Amazon Watch
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Kicking the Habit: US and China Must Drop Fossil Fuel Addiction

November 13, 2014 | Adam Zuckerman | Eye on the Amazon

Photo Credit: Amazon Watch

If you pledge sobriety and then buy a keg of beer, people are going to wonder.Bill McKibben

On Tuesday night the world’s two biggest polluters – the US and China – announced a surprisingly ambitious climate deal. We should take a moment to celebrate this interim victory while realizing that it does not go nearly far enough in addressing climate change. Now it is our collective, global responsibility to ensure that both countries are serious about such a deal.

An important first step would be for the US and China to cancel their destructive projects that are destroying the planet. To prove that he is serious, President Obama should reject the Keystone XL Pipeline and use his bully pulpit to push for a carbon tax. While unlikely with the current congress, a carbon tax could become a major campaign issue in 2016. And WE can protest our taxes going to subsidize climate catastrophe by divesting from the fossil fuel industry.

On his end, Xi Xinping should start by ensuring that China is living up to its existing environmental guidelines in the Amazon and beyond. Chinese state-owned conglomerate Andes Petroleum is planning to drill in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most pristine and biodiverse parts of the Amazon and home to the Sápara people, a UNESCO recognized cultural patrimony. Allowing Andes to drill there would violate the foreign investment guidelines that China released just last year. It would also violate its two-year-old Green Credit Guidelines.

Article Three of the new foreign investment guidelines directs enterprises to respect the cultural traditions of local communities and to “promote harmonious development of local economy, environment and community.” Similarly, Article Nine directs companies to “take into full account the impacts of their…operation activities on the social environment such as historical and cultural heritages, scenic spots and folk customs.”

If the Chinese government allows Andes Petroleum to drill in Sápara territory and Obama moves ahead with Keystone, it would show that this latest deal is no more than smoke and mirrors. As Bill McKibben wrote yesterday, “If you pledge sobriety and then buy a keg of beer, people are going to wonder.” Let’s be good Fuelaholics Anonymous sponsors as the US and China try to kick this habit.

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