<p>China on Saturday promised incremental new steps to address climate change in the next decade, but signaled that it would not reveal all of its plans before seeing the next moves taken by the United States.</p>.<p>Speaking at an online summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said that by 2030, China would reduce its carbon intensity by over 65 per cent. Carbon intensity is a measure of greenhouse gas emissions relative to economic activity.</p>.<p>Xi also said China would triple wind and solar power capacity to over 1 billion kilowatts and expand its forests.</p>.<p>Xi announced in September that China would reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide to net-zero, meaning that China would remove from the atmosphere whatever emissions it could not cut, by 2060.</p>.<p>China’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and Xi’s statement on Saturday reiterated that they would peak only some time “before 2030,” short of the timeline that many climate advocates had hoped for: that China would peak its emissions by 2025.</p>.<p>The statement was a carefully calibrated move to demonstrate that China intends to move more quickly toward a sustainable economy, without revealing details before a new administration takes over in Washington. “I think China is waiting to see what the Biden administration will announce and can deliver on,” said Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council.</p>.<p>With the pandemic having postponed the annual international climate negotiations by a full year, the online summit was intended to nudge countries to announce more ambitious climate plans for the short term. António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations and one of the hosts of the summit, called on every country to redirect coronavirus recovery funds toward climate-friendly sectors.</p>.<p>Neither France, the host of the Paris Agreement, nor India, a major source of emissions, made new commitments. And there were absences, like Australia, Brazil and the United States.</p>.<p>The departing Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris Agreement altogether. President-elect Joe Biden repeated, in a statement, that he would join the accord on his first day in office and convene an international summit within the first 100 days of his administration.</p>
<p>China on Saturday promised incremental new steps to address climate change in the next decade, but signaled that it would not reveal all of its plans before seeing the next moves taken by the United States.</p>.<p>Speaking at an online summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said that by 2030, China would reduce its carbon intensity by over 65 per cent. Carbon intensity is a measure of greenhouse gas emissions relative to economic activity.</p>.<p>Xi also said China would triple wind and solar power capacity to over 1 billion kilowatts and expand its forests.</p>.<p>Xi announced in September that China would reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide to net-zero, meaning that China would remove from the atmosphere whatever emissions it could not cut, by 2060.</p>.<p>China’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and Xi’s statement on Saturday reiterated that they would peak only some time “before 2030,” short of the timeline that many climate advocates had hoped for: that China would peak its emissions by 2025.</p>.<p>The statement was a carefully calibrated move to demonstrate that China intends to move more quickly toward a sustainable economy, without revealing details before a new administration takes over in Washington. “I think China is waiting to see what the Biden administration will announce and can deliver on,” said Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council.</p>.<p>With the pandemic having postponed the annual international climate negotiations by a full year, the online summit was intended to nudge countries to announce more ambitious climate plans for the short term. António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations and one of the hosts of the summit, called on every country to redirect coronavirus recovery funds toward climate-friendly sectors.</p>.<p>Neither France, the host of the Paris Agreement, nor India, a major source of emissions, made new commitments. And there were absences, like Australia, Brazil and the United States.</p>.<p>The departing Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris Agreement altogether. President-elect Joe Biden repeated, in a statement, that he would join the accord on his first day in office and convene an international summit within the first 100 days of his administration.</p>