The Once Wobbly Quad Is Here to Stay
The Quad is here to stay,” U.S. President Joe Biden confidently proclaimed during the group's final summit of his tenure in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 21.
To most observers, Biden's claim may seem overly optimistic, especially because the Quad—a security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States—has fallen apart once before, in 2008. But this time, for a number of reasons, the Quad is likely to endure well into the future.
For starters, the Quad has already weathered domestic power transitions—the key driver of its demise the first time around—in three of its participant states. The most important Quad participant, the United States, shifted from Republican to Democratic administrations (former President Donald Trump to Biden) with no corresponding downgrade in Quad participation. In fact, quite the opposite happened: After the Trump team revived the Quad in 2017, the Biden administration participated in not only the first in-person summit in 2021 but also five more summits, including two virtual ones. From the outset, the Biden team pledged to have the Quad play a “defining role in the region” in keeping China in check in the Indo-Pacific. Neither Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned on changing anything about the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy if he or she wins the election this November.
Similarly, Australia in 2022 experienced a switch from Liberal to Labour Party prime ministers (Scott Morrison to Anthony Albanese), and Canberra has not dampened any of its Quad activities. Meanwhile, Japan has undergone three prime minister transitions (Shinzo Abe to Yoshihide Suga to Fumio Kishida to, now, Shigeru Ishiba), all from the Liberal Democratic Party, with no change in Tokyo's appetite to engage in the grouping. India is the only country where a domestic leadership change has not yet occurred, but even there, the opposition Indian National Congress party has not contested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party's foreign policy, pledging before the last election in April to “uphold continuity.”
India targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, says Modi
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
COP26: What climate summit means for one woman in Bangladesh
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
Why China's climate policy matters to us all
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
Deliver on promises, developing world tells rich at climate talks
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.