July 15, 2022 – The Reasons Behind the Western Countries’ Not Keeping Their Word’ and China’s ‘Keeping its Words’

Event

On July 15, 2022, Germany exited from the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Agreement.

Reflection

The political system of traditional capitalist countries determines that decisions made by the current and future leaders may likely be inconsistent. This inconsistency is permitted both legally and globally. Even if failing to keep promises seems immoral, morality has never been of prime importance.

If the decisions of the current leader are to last for 50 years, they might be overturned when a new leader takes office in 5 years. However, the only concern in doing so would be the costs involved (since leaders only love to care about the votes - which can better help them determine the benefits and costs of any events).

However, the Chinese Communist Party is different. A major historical characteristic of its governance is continuity. This not only stems from the fact that top leadership has always been closely knit, either as one family or as opposing sides within the party but still present a united image to the outside world, but also stems from the Chinese leadership's way of thinking: “stability matters most, all I should do, is to grasp enough benefits for myself and my confidants, and make sure no unrest happened during my tenure. If something bad happens, I will try my best to cover it, and let the next leader take this blame”.

Prediction

Unless a large number of European countries abandon the Paris Agreement and give up on carbon neutrality, China will still adhere to the agreement, even if its economy and the CNY begins to collapse (to USD) around 2024 or 2025 (by collapse I mean more about 1. credibility - check state issued debt, and 2. exchange rate: usd-cny > 9).