Date and Time: 20:00 – 21:30, Saturday Feb. 18

The US and China have resumed talks on climate at COP27 following the Biden-Xi meeting in Bali. Albeit locked in strategic competition, the two foes’ joint efforts are crucial to addressing climate change. John Kerry, then former secretary of state and now US climate envoy, recounted his climate engagement with Beijing at a CCG-MSC side-event in 2020. Proved pivotal to striking the 2015 Paris agreement, will renewed talks in 2023 fill the tall order of saving the planet from global warming and systemic instability? China’s former foreign minister Wang Yi said that climate cooperation is like an ‘oasis’ of China-US relations. Vis-à-vis ‘desert’, or the metaphorical hostility, can climate negotiations be divorced from mounting challenges in the relationship? As Q1 2023 will see the inauguration of new congress for both, a ray of hope may be spurred by continued climate consultation and for high-level contacts on other matters critical to global stability. This event seeks to explore possibilities for conflict-preventing behavior and cooperation.

Drawing on insights of policy advisors and area specialists from China, the United States, and Europe, this event aims to examine US-China bilateral relationship through both the lenses of climate diplomacy and broader geopolitical issues.

The central questions it seeks to address include:

▶How will the bilateral relations move forward in the context of a newly inaugurated Congress in the US and a new administration in China to be installed soon in March?

▶What are the conditions for and constraints on the two sides’ efforts in building a floor for the bilateral competition?

▶What are the opportunities and challenges for China-US climate cooperation and the implications for the global climate agenda?

▶Which proposals from the international community can help?promote global governance cooperation between the world’s two largest economies?

Agenda

19:30 Arrival of guests/Networking

20:00 Introduction by host:

Dr. Mabel Lu Miao, Co-founder and Secretary-General, CCG

20:05 Welcome by host:

Dr. Henry Huiyao Wang, President, CCG

20:10 Welcome by host:

Amb. Boris Ruge, Vice Chairman, MSC

20:15 Special address:

Amb. Mdm. FU Ying, Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the National People’s Congress, People’s Republic of China

20:25 Special address:

Prof. Jason Bordoff, Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Co-Founding Dean, Climate School, Columbia University

20:35 Keynote input by 4-5 appointed speakers from participants to kick off the discussion

Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Justin Vaisse, Director General, Paris Peace Forum; former Director of the policy Planning at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the French Republic

Guntram Wolff, Director and Chief Executive Officer, German Council on Foreign Relations

21:00 Open discussion

21:30 Meeting adjourns/Networking

List of Confirmed Participants (alphabetic):

Ravi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy

Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, President and Founder of the Emirates Policy Center

Ottmar Edenhofer, Director and Chief Economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Trine Flockhart, Professor and Director of Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark

Helga Flores-Trejo, Vice President, Head International Public Affairs, Bayer AG

Ralph Heck, Chairman Executive Board, Bertelsmann Foundation

Stephen B. Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Bernd Hops, Executive Vice President Communications & Public Policy, Chief Communications Officer, Infineon Technologies

Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, Member of the Management Board, German Corporation for International Cooperation

Rich Lesser, Global Chair, Boston Consulting Group

Andrew J.P. Levy, Chief Corporate & Government Affairs Officer, Accenture

Morris Loveday, Bureau Chief, The Washington Post

John Dramani Mahama, Chairman, Tana High Level Forum on Security in Africa; former President of the Republic of Ghana

Bernhard Meising, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Partner, Kekst CNC

Masakatsu Ota, Senior Feature Writer and Editorial Writer, Kyodo News

Fred W. Reinke, President American Friends of the MSC

Michael Rogers, Advisory Board Member, Trusted Future

Grégoire Roos, Director of Program, BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt

Paul Schreier, Chief Executive Officer, Wellcome Trust

YAO Yunzhu, Director Emeritus, Center on China-American Defence Relations, Academy of Military Science, People’s Liberation Army, People’s Republic of China, Beijing

Anja Ufermann, Founder & Organizer of Munich Peace Meeting

Arancha González Laya, Dean, Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po; former Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain