The Biden administration is considering sanctions over China’s alleged use of forced labor in manufacturing solar panels and other climate-friendly production, according to what climate envoy John Kerry told lawmakers recently while appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify on the global response to climate change.
Several topics were discussed, including investment in clean and renewable energies, reducing carbon emissions, the Paris Climate Agreement, the effects of climate change on vulnerable and indigenous populations, and protecting the Amazon rainforest. Kerry answered several questions on China's role in combating climate change and how best to hold them accountable to their commitments.
The Associated Press said that Kerry "sought to defuse one of the main arguments that congressional Republicans have cited against President Joe Biden’s push for a climate-friendly makeover of the U.S. economy: China’s manufacturing dominance risks implicating buyers of Chinese-made solar panels, batteries and other green-energy tech in that country’s human rights abuses.
Directly honing in on concerns surrounding solar panels, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the senior Republican on the committee, said "you look at the supply chain, China dominates the critical mineral and solar supply chains coming out of the province which we believe is using slave labor to create these renewable energy sources."
"So, my question to you (Kerry) is how can you assure us, or ensure that … slave labor coming out of China, where genocide is taking place as we speak, are never a part of the climate solution in the United States?”
Kerry told McCaul he was “absolutely correct” to raise the concern.
“It is a problem,” Kerry said. He cited “solar panels that we believe in some cases are being produced by forced labor.” Kerry also listed rare earth minerals produced by China and used in things such as magnets for wind turbines, among other uses. Kerry added that the Biden administration is in the process of assessing whether to add those to the list of products from Xinjiang province that the U.S. is already penalizing.
The Associated Press said that Biden is calling for the United States to put trillions of dollars into his jobs plan and other proposals that would retool U.S. power and transportation sectors to pump out less fossil fuel pollution. That includes promoting U.S. use of solar, wind and other renewable energy — and boosting the country's patchy production of components vital to those industries.
In his remarks, Kerry tried to put a positive spin on the situation. “The best thing we could do is be more competitive” when it comes to making solar panels.
