China’s Climate Progress May Have Faltered in 2018, But It Seems to Be on the Right Path: DESMOG

 "In short, despite recent fluctuations, I remain optimistic that China remains on the path toward meeting its Paris target of capping carbon emissions by 2030 and deriving 20 percent of its energy from sources other than oil, gas and coal.

Despite the recent setbacks, the most likely scenario is that China’s emissions will peak before 2030. How quickly they might decline after 2030 is not yet clear.

This is not to say China is doing everything it can to combat climate change.

Like the U.S. and all other countries, China must make its climate policies more ambitious if the world is to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, as the Paris climate accord is intended to do. For example, global emissions will be lower in the long run if China phases out its fossil fuel subsidies and stops building coal-fired power plants in other countries.

But given the pace of its economic growth, China’s accomplishments to date are notable. As the Center for American Progress, a think tank, found, if regulatory trends continue, by 2020 no American coal plants would meet China’s carbon emission standards.

That is a good reminder that the whole world, and not just China, needs to do more if we are to be spared from the worst impacts of climate change.


Phillip Stalley is Associate Professor and Fulbright Scholarship Program Advisor at DePaul University.


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


Main image: A woman in Beijing wearing a mask to avoid inhaling smog passes an anti-pollution mural. Credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong"