The Economist USA - 21.09.2019

The EconomistSeptember 21st 2019 47

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fterdonaldtrumpbecameAmeri-
ca’spresidentin 2017 andthumbedhis
noseatinternationaleffortstocurbglobal
warming,Chinaemergedasa herointhe
campaign.OtherWesternleaderswerere-
lievedthatitdidnottaketheopportunity
tobackawayaswell—afterall,ithadonce
condemnedclimate-changetalkasWest-
ernfearmongeringaimedatundermining
China’seconomic growth.The country’s
president,XiJinping,wonwidespreadap-
plauseforinsistingthatemissionsgoals
agreedattheun’s climatemeetinginParis
in 2015 mustbeupheld.
Nowenvironmentalistswonderwheth-
erChinawillleadthechargeina newround
ofclimatediplomacy.Oneaimofthecli-
matesummitattheun’sheadquarterson
September23rdistoremindcountriesthat
theywillneedmoreambitioustargetsif
the world is to keep global warming below

2°C.Workisgettingunderway on drawing

upChina’snextfive-yeareconomic plan,

whichwilltakeeffectin2021. It will be a

testofChina’swillingnessto raise its game.

Earlysignsarenotpromising.

Chinacertainlylookswell on track to

fulfilthepledgesitmadeat the Paris con-

ference: that carbon-dioxide emissions

wouldreachafinalpeak“around 2030”,

and thatbythenone-fifth of its energy

wouldcomefromnon-fossil sources, up

fromone-sixthcurrently.In2015 its carbon

emissions,havingsurgedin many of the

precedingyears,fellslightly for the first

timethiscentury(see chart, next page).

This wasbecause Chinawas no longer

flooding its economy with money in order

to combat the effects of the global financial

crisis of 2008. It was also the result of vast

green projects launched by the govern-

ment to assuage public anger over toxic air

and other environmental damage. The

smog choking China’s cities was being

caused, not least, by the burning of coal

which was also responsible for much of the

country’s greenhouse-gas emissions. The

air in Beijing (pictured), though still often

awful, appears cleaner than it was a few

years ago.

The proportion of China’s energy that is

produced from coal, the most polluting of

fossil fuels, is still high. But it has de-

creased by more than ten percentage

points over the past decade, to below 60%.

A third of the world’s electricity-generating

capacity from wind is now in China, as are a

quarter of the world’s solar panels in use.

The country is building 11 more nuclear re-

actors, to add to its existing 47. From next

year China will start requiring fossil-fu-

elled power firms to buy and sell credits in

a national carbon-trading scheme—

though it may be years before the system

results in big cuts in emissions.

But the pledges made in Paris by China

and the world’s other main emitters of glo-

bal-warming gasses are far from enough.

Fulfilling them may still allow tempera-

tures to rise by 3-3.5°C, which would be cat-

Climate-changetargets

Fromsmogtoslog

BEIJING
Chinahasuphelditspledgesongreenhouse-gasemissions.Itmustdo a lot more

China

48 Scienceanddissent

49 Chaguan: Atheist officials show

respect for a goddess

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