VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A nice surprise came from the COP26 Summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. Two big competing economies: the United States and China announced an agreement to work together in dealing with climate change. The efforts   include cutting methane emissions, stopping consumption of coal and protecting forests. Both economic giants are known to be the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide. In addition, they account for nearly 40 percent of all global carbon pollution.

Quoted from Reuters, this deal was announced by the US climate envoy, John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland last Wednesday (10/11). Kerry said that the United States and China have set their sights on the success of COP26. Meanwhile, according to Xie Zhenhua, the deal will see China strengthen its emission reduction targets. Both China and the United States will cooperate with other parties to ensure a successful COP26 and facilitate an ambitious and balanced outcome.

UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement between China and the United States. As EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said to Reuters Timmermans, it was heartening to see the two countries known to be at odds on many fronts and have found common ground on the biggest challenges facing humanity today.

The agreement between the United States and China can indeed be said to be rare and unexpected. After a long time, both are now joining many other countries, realizing that   climate change is a common problem surpassing others. They also seem to understand more now that even big countries will not be able to avoid the negative impacts of climate change. It is proven that both of them have also experienced various quite devastating natural disasters due to climate change.

Indeed, only with the cooperation of all nations, the problem of climate change can be tackled. Now, the world is waiting for concrete actions from the agreement between the United States and China. The media noted that however, the agreement does not have details on how and when actions will be taken. Meanwhile, climate change continues to affect the life of all mankind.