Two of the world’s three big climate polluters, China and the European Union, pledged on Thursday to work together to slow down planetary heating. Together they called the Paris Agreement, the pact among nations to address global warming, “the cornerstone of international climate cooperation.”

全球三大气候污染制造者中的两个——中国和欧盟——周四承诺合作减缓全球变暖。双方一同表示，《巴黎协定》这一各国应对全球变暖的公约为“国际气候合作的基石”。

They didn’t mention the United States by name, but they didn’t have to.

双方没有点名提及美国，但这并无必要。

America, the third member of the trio of top global climate polluters, has said that it will pull out of the Paris Agreement, and the Trump administration has rolled back policies and government-funded programs that were intended to spur the development of renewable energy in the United States.

同样是全球气候污染三巨头之一的美国已表示将退出《巴黎协定》，特朗普政府还撤销了旨在推动美国可再生能源发展的政策和政府资助项目。

The joint statement opened by saying, “in the fluid and turbulent international situation today, it is crucial that all countries, notably the major economies, maintain policy continuity and stability and step up efforts to address climate change.”

中欧联合声明开篇称：“在当前变乱交织的国际形势下，世界各国尤其是主要经济体保持政策连续性与稳定性、加大应对气候变化努力至关重要。”

China and the European Union most certainly don’t agree on everything when it comes to tackling rising emissions. European officials have in the past been vocal in criticizing China’s widespread use of coal: China burns more coal than any country ever has. European officials have also criticized what they call China’s dumping of inexpensive electric vehicles on the global market.

在应对排放增长问题上，中国和欧盟并非在所有方面都意见一致。欧洲官员过去曾毫不掩饰地指责中国对煤炭的广泛使用——中国的煤炭消耗量超过了历史上任何一个国家。欧洲官员还批评中国向全球市场“倾销”廉价电动汽车。

And China has criticized the European Union’s new border tax based on greenhouse-gas emissions, which makes it costlier to sell Chinese products there, particularly steel. Beijing and Brussels also have major differences on geopolitics, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

中国则批评欧盟新出台的基于温室气体排放的边境税，认为这增加了中国产品（尤其是钢铁）在欧洲的销售成本。北京和布鲁塞尔在地缘政治方面也存在重大分歧，包括俄罗斯入侵乌克兰。

But China has staked out an ambitious long-term policy of dominating the sale of clean-energy technologies to the world including solar panels, wind turbines, next-generation batteries and electric vehicles. What makes the joint pledge significant is that it represents an attempt to smooth the tensions over the trade of these products, particularly the export of Chinese EVs to Europe.

但中国制定了一项雄心勃勃的长期政策，旨在主导向全球销售清洁能源技术，包括太阳能电池板、风力涡轮机、新一代电池和电动汽车。这份联合承诺的重要意义在于，它代表着双方试图缓和围绕这些产品贸易方面的紧张局势，尤其是中国电动汽车对欧洲的出口。

“In the absence of robust U.S. climate action, the EU and China still recognize the imperative of working together to confront a shared existential threat,” said Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Amid deep divergences” in global climate policy, he said, the joint statement “offers a modest but meaningful source of relief.”

“在美国缺乏有力气候行动的情况下，欧盟和中国仍认识到必须共同努力应对这一共同的生存威胁，”亚洲协会政策研究所中国气候中心主任李硕表示。他说，在全球气候政策“存在深刻分歧”的背景下，这份联合声明“带来了一丝有限但有意义的慰藉”。

With years of generous state support for private companies, China is now the global front-runner in building and selling clean energy technologies.

多年来，在中国政府对私营企业的大力支持下，中国如今在清洁能源技术的制造和销售方面处于全球领先地位。

At home it installed more solar panels and wind turbines in 2024 than the rest of the world combined. Its electric vehicles are sold in showrooms from Milan to Mumbai, and it is setting up electric vehicle assembly plants around the world, including in Thailand, Turkey and Brazil. Some of China’s biggest clean-energy manufacturing plants are in Saudi Arabia, a petrostate.

2024年，中国国内安装的太阳能电池板和风力涡轮机数量超过了世界其他地区的总和。其电动汽车在从米兰到孟买的展厅中销售，并且正在全球各地建立电动汽车组装厂，包括泰国、土耳其和巴西。中国一些最大的清洁能源制造工厂设在了沙特阿拉伯——一个石油国家。

An analysis published Thursday in Carbon Brief, an online publication, said China’s export of clean energy goods in 2024 alone are expected to reduce global emissions by 1 percent.

在线出版物《碳简报》(Carbon Brief)周四发布的一项分析称，仅2024年，中国出口的清洁能源产品就有望减少全球1%的排放量。

Making these clean-energy products in China is itself a polluting activity, in part because China’s factories are so reliant on coal power. Researchers estimated the emissions produced by factories making this gear for export in 2024 amount to 110 million tons of carbon dioxide. And China is continuing to build out coal plants.

在中国生产这些清洁能源产品本身就是一种污染行为，部分原因是中国的工厂严重依赖煤电。研究人员估计，2024年为出口而生产这些设备的工厂所产生的排放量相当于1.1亿吨二氧化碳。而且中国仍在继续建设燃煤电厂。

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas warming the world. Released into the atmosphere, it acts as a blanket, trapping the sun’s heat.

二氧化碳是导致全球变暖的主要温室气体。释放到大气中后，这种物质就像一层毯子，将太阳的热量困在里面。

The joint statement on Thursday included a promise by both China and the E.U. to submit new targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions before November, when the international climate negotiations known as COP are held in Brazil.

周四的联合声明中，中国和欧盟承诺在11月于巴西举行的“缔约方大会”的国际气候谈判前，提交新的温室气体减排目标。

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has proposed, ambitiously, to cut its climate pollution by 90 percent by 2040, compared with 1990 levels. That target has yet to be approved by the European Parliament. China has yet to release an updated target.

欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会提出了一项雄心勃勃的计划，到2040年将气候污染较1990年水平减少90%。这一目标尚未得到欧洲议会的批准。中国尚未公布更新后的目标。

It remains unclear if the United States will send representatives to the climate talks in Brazil.

目前尚不清楚美国是否会派遣代表参加在巴西举行的气候谈判。

The statement didn’t mention whether the new Chinese and European targets would be aligned with what scientific consensus says is necessary to avert some of the worst effects of climate change. That would require limiting the world’s temperature increase to to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels.

声明没有提及中国和欧洲的新目标是否与科学界公认的、为避免气候变化最严重影响所必需的目标一致。后者认为需要把全球气温较工业化前水平的升高控制在“远低于2摄氏度”的水平。

“The fact that a joint statement was agreed and published at this moment in time is significant,” Kaysie Brown, who follows climate diplomacy at E3G, a European research and advocacy group. “It provides a timely and much-needed signal of renewed climate leadership at a moment when global ambition is faltering.”

“此时此刻达成并发布联合声明意义重大，”欧洲研究与倡导组织E3G关注气候外交的凯西·布朗表示。“在全球气候雄心日渐减弱之际，它及时发出了气候领导力重振的信号，这是目前亟需的。”