China has emerged as a world leader in fighting climate change after the United States announced that it would be leaving the Paris accord. This is something that was further affirmed by Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Communist Party Congress last month. He made an announcement where he said that his nation was willing to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to responding to climate change. The question that still lingers in the mind of many people is how China will achieve this, and it’s still the leading country in carbon emissions. A recent study showed that carbon emissions had increased this year in both China and India. Climate experts have addressed the issue saying that the country has the capability of dealing with climate if it deals with the contradictions that have existed for some time. The most promising thing about the world’s biggest polluter and most populous nation on earth is that it has almost achieved a promise it made during the launch of the Paris accord. As for China, it stayed away from controversy in the recently concluded United Nations conference in Bonn, Germany. This is unlike the United States that made a fool of itself when it tried to promote coal. However, this didn’t go well with some of the people who attended the ceremony.
The higher emissions that were published last week didn’t surprise energy experts. The statistics were published by the Global Carbon Project which revealed that China and India were the world biggest polluters. Energy specialists said that it was expected because China had recorded decreased carbon emissions in the last three years. They further explained that the results should tell the world how difficult it is for a country like China to stay away from coal. The same specialists have announced that they are now focused on China in the next three years to determine whether the country will be able to take from where the United States left. Other than international pressure, China has its own reasons why it wants to do away with the coal energy. For instance, the country has been subjected to domestic pressure to deal with air pollution. A Chinese affairs expert known as Jiang Lin says that when it comes to domestic air quality in the country, it falls in the same alignment with climate commitment and this is a good thing. Mr. Lin works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
