Climate Politics
China Vows to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions 7% to 10% by 2035
A man tends to vegetables growing in a field as emissions rise from cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Tongling, China.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergChina, the world’s largest polluter, set a target to cut economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% over the next decade, a strategy that’s seen as too modest to put the nation on a path to net zero and galvanize global climate action.
The promised reduction from China’s peak levels — while “striving to do better” — follows President Xi Jinping’s pledge in April to pursue more stringent curbs and to set policies that cover the entire economy, addressing pollutants beyond carbon dioxide. It follows a tradition of Chinese leaders setting relatively modest climate targets, only to surpass them later.