For years U.S.-China climate negotiations have been much like the running gag in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon where Bullwinkle says "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat." To which Rocky responds, "But that trick never works." Bullwinkle gamely replies, "This time for sure!"
The just-released Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis is the latest effort by the Biden administration's equivalent of Bullwinkle, Climate Envoy John Kerry, to pull off the trick of getting China to collaborate with the U.S. on climate change. The Sunnylands Statement follows earlier efforts by Kerry to obtain Chinese commitments on climate change in 2014 and 2015 when he was secretary of state during the Obama administration.
