美环保局长为中美气候变化联合声明辩护
The US environmental watchdog has defended a landmark climate deal with China that Republicans have attacked as one-sided, saying it requires Beijing as well as Washington to make “difficult adjustments”.
美国环境监管机构为中美达成的一项具有里程碑意义的气候协议进行辩护，称该协议要求中美两国都做出“艰难调整”。共和党抨击该协议是一边倒的。The world’s two biggest greenhouse gas polluters signed the agreement to curb emissions last month, but Republicans say it imposes too many obligations on the US and too few on China.
上月，两个全球最大的温室气体排放国签署了遏制碳排放的协议，但共和党人士表示，该协议令美国承担的义务过多，中国承担的义务太少。
Gina McCarthy, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, rejected the criticism, saying Beijing’s commitment to ensure Chinese emissions peak by about 2030 demands that the central government takes immediate action to pull reluctant provincial governments into line.
美国环保局(US Environmental Protection Agency)局长吉娜•麦卡锡(Gina McCarthy)拒绝接受这一批评。她表示，中国承诺将确保中国的碳排放量在2030年左右见顶，这要求中央政府立即采取措施，让不情愿的省级政府步调一致。
“They are going to have to make really difficult adjustments to their entire economic structure and policy structure to be able to make that happen,” she said in an interview with the Financial Times. “This is a huge challenge for them and it’s one I certainly never envisioned they would embrace.
“要做到这点，他们将不得不对他们的整个经济结构和政策结构作出一些真正艰难的调整，”她在接受英国《金融时报》采访时表示，“这对他们而言是一项巨大挑战，我确实想不到他们会迎接这样的挑战。”“I think people who are unfamiliar with [the US-China deal] may look at it as being disproportionate. I don’t think so.”
“我认为，不了解（中美协议）的人可能会认为其不成比例。我不这么认为。”Her comments highlight how efforts to tackle global warming depend partly on the world’s two largest economic powers managing tensions between central and regional governments.
她的言论突显出，解决全球变暖的努力。在一定程度上依赖于全球两大经济强国妥善处理中央与地方政府之间的紧张关系。Beijing’s weak environmental bureaucracy faces constant battles with local leaders who have historically been told to prioritise economic growth above environment concerns, political analysts say.
政治分析人士表示，中国薄弱的环境部门面临着与地方领导者的持续角力，后者传统上被告知把经济增长置于环境关切之上。Ms McCarthy, who was appointed in 2013 to help curb the pace of climate change part of President Barack Obama’s legacy, faces her own regional challenges at home.
麦卡锡在国内也面临着地方政府发起的挑战。她于2013年得到任命，以帮助控制气候变化的速度，这将是美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)的政治遗产之一。Her agency is being sued by 12 US states that oppose plans to cut greenhouse gas pollution from the power sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s emissions. A total of 17 state attorneys-general have declared the proposals illegal.
反对降低电力行业温室气体排放计划的美国12个州正起诉美国环保局，该行业的碳排放量占美国总排放量的40%。有17个州的首席检察长宣布这些提议非法。The regulations are central to the US’s ability to meet its own commitments to emit 26–28 per cent less greenhouse gas in 2025 than it did in 2005.
这些规定对于美国兑现自己承诺的能力至关重要，美国承诺在2025年令其温室气体排放量较2005年减少26%至28%。
