COP27 was disappointing, but US-China climate diplomacy is thawing
Great-power rivalry will shape the world’s response to the crisis
![Smoking chimneys are pictured in Qian'an, Hebei province on Dec. 09, 2016. Qian'an, with many smoking factories and three-hour drive from China's capital city Beijing, is regarded as one of the air pollutant sources of Beijing's air pollution. 09DEC16 SCMP/Simon Song (Photo by Simon Song/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20221126_LDP003.jpg)
“We rose to the occasion,” crowed Egypt’s foreign minister after COP27, the global climate summit that ended on November 20th. Hardly. The delegates failed to make a clear commitment to phase out the use of fossil fuels. The best they could produce was a vague agreement that rich countries should pay poor ones for climate-related “loss and damage”.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Green competition”
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