China still hot about climate change
One of the last major initiatives of President Barack Obama was to join forces with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the battle against global warming, with both the US and China joining the Paris Agreement to combat climate change late last year.
However this unity was shattered with the arrival of President Donald Trump who has denounced global warming as a “hoax” and promised to pull out of the Paris accord.
While we do not know how all of this will turn out, President Trump has now handed China an opportunity to play a leading role in this environmental battle.
At first glance this idea may seem a little hard to swallow, given the frequent headlines about China’s deadly smog. China is still the world’s largest user of coal, but it has reduced its mining activities and enforced a moratorium on the building of coal-fired power stations in some regions.
Furthermore, the country is a leader in renewable energy and leaps and bounds ahead of every other nation in terms of solar and wind power (I wrote about this in my October article last year). It is home to five of the top six solar manufacturers and five of the top 10 wind turbine makers.
China remains steadfast in its commitment to tackling climate change both at home and abroad. In 2016 it invested $88 billion in renewable energy – of this, $32 billion was invested in renewable energy projects beyond its borders. The EU and China have already signed an agreement on tackling climate change, and Europe is now actively looking to China to help fill the gap that will be left by the US’s likely departure from global efforts in this area. Beijing’s expertise in renewable energy is much coveted, but so also is its investment budget. Not only does China have the resources and will to invest in relevant solutions, the country also enjoys strong relationships with many developing nations.
This could see China use its soft power as a friend and influencer to place climate change more firmly on the global agenda while providing other countries with necessary knowhow.
Now that the US has gone cool on climate change, it is China’s turn to play a positive role on this hot issue.