money U.S. faces 'tricky' task working with China on climate change
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates told says U.S. environmental diplomacy with China poses a "tricky" task for the Biden administration, which must navigate a "complex relationship" while urging China to speed up their emissions reduction.
Video Transcript
ANDY SERWER: Even assuming that we can get the US economy on board with these ideas, Bill, how sanguine are you about getting the Chinese to be a part of this kind of endeavor?
BILL GATES: Well, it's super important because they're also a source of innovation. Their universities are not as good as ours, but they've gotten a lot better. They are huge in the industrial economy. Almost half the world's cement, half the world's steel is made in that one country, some of it embedded in exports that they make.
And they also finance coal plants, not just domestically but as part of the Belt and Road Initiative in other countries as well. Their current commitment is zero by 2060, and so, you know, how can we in a win-win kind of way get them to bring that date earlier and not have them promoting coal in such a big way? You know, The remaining coal-- although there's a few plants in rich countries, and we need to get rid of those-- it's really about China and India. And, you know, it's tricky because we have a complex relationship with China. John Kerry is going to do his best to see if this isn't an area that we're helping each other.
