U.S., China expected to join climate deal during Obama visit

HONOLULU – Opening his final trip to Asia, President Barack Obama is expected to join Chinese leader Xi Jinping in announcing their countries are formally taking part in a historic global climate deal. Yet thornier issues like maritime disputes and cybersecurity shadow Obama’s visit.

The president departed Friday for Hangzhou, China, where he will meet on Saturday with Xi ahead of a summit of the Group of 20, a collection of industrial and emerging-market nations. Environmental groups and experts tracking global climate policy said they expected the two leaders would jointly enter the sweeping emissions-cutting deal reached last year in Paris. Unlikely partners on addressing global warming, the U.S. and China have sought to use their collaboration to ramp up pressure on other countries to take concrete action as well.

Entering the climate agreement has been an intricate exercise in diplomatic choreography. As Obama crossed the Pacific, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported China’s legislature had voted to formally enter the agreement. The White House announced Obama would speak about climate change shortly after landing in the eastern city.

The deal was reached in December, and the U.S., China and many others signed it in April, on Earth Day. Even the third step – formally participating in the deal – doesn’t bring it into force in the U.S. or China. That won’t happen until a critical mass of polluting countries joins.

Aiming to build on previous cooperation, the U.S. and China have also been discussing a global agreement on aviation emissions, though there’s some disagreement about what obligations developing countries should face in the first years. The aviation issue is expected to be on the agenda for Obama’s meeting with Xi, along with ongoing efforts to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, another greenhouse gas.

The alliance on climate has been a rare bright spot between the U.S. and China in recent years, a relationship otherwise characterized by tensions over China’s emergence as a key global power. Washington has been deeply concerned about China’s territorial ambitions in waters far off its coast, while Beijing looks warily at Obama’s efforts to expand U.S. influence in Asia, viewing it as an attempt to contain China’s rise.

Obama, in a CNN interview, said he’d told China’s leaders repeatedly that with more global power comes more responsibility.

“Part of what I’ve tried to communicate to President Xi is that the United States arrives at its power, in part, by restraining itself,” Obama said. “When we bind ourselves to a bunch of international norms and rules, it’s not because we have to, it’s because we recognize that over the long term, building a strong international order is in our interests.”