That's Alright Mama?

So, a visit to Shanghai by US Climate Envoy John Kerry, to see his Chinese counterpart, appears to have gone well (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/18/us-and-china-commit-to-cooperating-on-climate-crisis). The US and China issued a statement saying they are "committed to cooperating on climate change". This is a good start. It's certainly better than being committed to obstructing attempts to limit climate change (often the case in recent times!). The trouble is that words are cheap and meaningful action is urgent. In spite of its rapidly-recovering post Pandemic economy, China is still the biggest coal user in the world. Sacrifices will have to be made by nations, if action is going to be fast enough. The trouble is that many countries are obsessed by not disadvantaging their economies in the process. Kerry was sensibly careful not to become embroiled in a blame game at the meeting. There are also too many fancy schemes empowering industries and politicians to declare progress where no progress has been made. Even if the world ceased burning coal, oil and gas tomorrow, it would take a long, long time to get back to pre-Industrial levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It's scary to note, that the last time atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were near current values, the mean sea level was more than 16 M higher than today.