You may have read in the press that President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping jointly announced an agreement on greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and other climate change measures.  The U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change and an accompanying fact sheet have been released by the White House.  This perhaps breaks the rhetorical logjam of discomfort among some in the United States to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before China commits to reduce its own.

Some have observed that this development also reinforces Administration efforts to induce manufacturing to “on-shore” to the United States.  Chris Bell of GT Houston points out that “that the U.S. has effectively outsourced a lot of its GHG emissions to Asia/China by outsourcing its manufacturing and then just importing the finished goods back into the U.S.”  A Chinese commitment to reduce emissions makes the GHG playing field somewhat more level when it comes to location decisions for that manufacturing.