Yanhong Adamou, the secretary general of the UN’s climate pact, said this week that the pledges will “set the world on the right track” for the goals imposed under the Paris Agreement.
China’s economy is still growing fast, at 7.6 per cent last year, but its industrial output is slowing and its pollution remains well above limits set in the Paris Agreement.
More is on the way. In April, China approved plans to build a coal-fired power plant worth hundreds of billions of dollars that will consume up to 40,000 megawatts of power in a province bordering Japan. The Chinese state-controlled energy giant, General Electric, said the plant could increase electricity output from coal by 4 per cent, and that it will make possible China’s commitment of 15 per cent of its electricity to renewables by 2030.
China’s President Xi Jinping said China will not let the nation’s pollution reach “unacceptably dangerous” levels.
“No matter what the target looks like or whether it is a zero-red line, China will not take any action until we reach it,” he said.
“China will take decisive action to protect the air and water quality and ensure environmental protection and health of people who live and work in China and our country,” Xi said last month.
Mr. Trump’s approach has unsettled his nation’s closest international partners. They have struggled to reconcile his campaign promise to pull out of the agreement at any cost with the president’s vows to bring the U.S. more seriously into the world of climate change.
The U.S. and a host of other nations, and even some businesses, are looking into whether Mr. Trump will continue to be his own man on the climate change file. But Beijing is sticking its neck out when it comes to dealing with the new U.S. leader.
The U.S. and China have come close to an unprecedented stand-off after the president was invited to dinner in the nation’s capital by Mr. Xi, who held the position of vice premier.
The dinner at the Forbidden City, is the first dinner Mr. Trump has had since his election victory on Nov. 8, 2016.
Trump administration officials have said it is not an admission that Mr. Trump is not committed to fighting climate change. Instead, a visit to the city by the American leader “is an opportunity to make a statement on the