Dismay Over China's Emission Cuts Vow, Despite Trump Fiasco

China has vowed for the first time to cut its greenhouse gas emissions – by a small amount over the next 10 years – with President Xi Jinping urging the world to stay on course to countering climate change.

The Chinese President was one of several national leaders who announced new climate plans on Wednesday at a summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and offered a veiled rebuke of US President Donald Trump’s belligerent anti-climate rhetoric a day earlier at the UN General Assembly.

In a live video message from Beijing, Xi said that by 2035 his country would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7%-10% from its peak. He said China planned to increase its wind and solar power capacity by six times from its 2020 levels within the next 10 years – and boost its share of non-fossil fuels in domestic energy consumption to over 30%.

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China’s reduction target – unveiled on a day when the country’s southern coast was lashed by the biggest typhoon of the year – marked the first time the world’s biggest emitter pledged a cut in emissions, rather than just limiting their growth, as the reduction was less than many observers had hoped for and expected.

Xi urged stronger climate action from the world’s developed countries. He referred, though not by name, to the United States for moving away from the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“Green and low-carbon transformation is the trend of our times. Despite some countries going against the trend, the international community should stay on the right track, maintain unwavering confidence, unwavering action, and undiminished efforts,” Xi said.

Trump ‘hands energy future to China’

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump used his UN General Assembly speech to blast climate change as a “con job”. He said scientists were “stupid” and criticized EU member states and China for embracing clean energy technologies.

Trump ordered a second withdrawal by Washington from the 10-year-old Paris treaty, which aimed to prevent global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius through national climate plans. The US is the world’s biggest historical greenhouse gas emitter and second biggest current emitter behind China.

Ian Bremmer, a political scientist with the Belfer Center, said Trump’s climate denial speech had effectively ceded the market for post-carbon energy to the Chinese.

“Trump wants fossil fuels and the United States is indeed a powerful petro-state,” Bremmer said. “But letting China become the world’s sole powerful electro-state is the opposite of making America great again … at least if you care about the future.”

Observers had been hoping that China would seize on the US retreat as a moment to announce a reduction target of at least 30% to stay in line with its past goal of net-zero emissions by 2060.

Beijing’s small target fails to impress

Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society, said China’s announcement was underwhelming in light of its rapid production of renewable energy and electric vehicles.

“Beijing’s commitment represents a cautious move that extends a long-standing political tradition of prioritizing steady, predictable decision-making but also hides a more significant economic reality,” he said.

Li noted, however, that China’s dominance in green technology and Washington’s retreat could push China toward a more proactive role on the global stage.

Solar panels are seen in front of factories at Jinjie Industrial Park in Shenmu, China in this Reuters image from November 2023.

Despite pressure for significant new climate commitments ahead of this year’s COP30 summit in Brazil, Wednesday’s announcements failed to impress.

Environmental groups and observers said pledges by some of the world’s biggest economies fell well short of where they should be in emissions reductions, given the rapidly worsening impacts of climate change.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva warned that countries’ commitments made ahead of the UN climate summit in November would show the world “whether or not we believe in what the science is showing us.”

Brazil has committed to reducing emissions by 59%-67% by 2035 and to stepping up efforts to combat deforestation.

“Society is going to stop believing its leaders,” Lula said. “And all of us will lose because denialism may actually win.”

‘We must go further, faster’

Guterres, who hosted the summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, assured that the world was making progress in the energy transition, even if it was slow.

“The Paris Agreement has made a difference,” Guterres said in prepared remarks, noting that actions taken under the 2015 treaty had lowered the projected rise in the average global temperature from 4 degrees Celsius to 2.6 degrees C.

That’s still far from the treaty’s stated goal of holding to 1.5 degrees C. The world has warmed more than 1.2 degrees C from the pre-industrial average already.

“Now, we need new plans for 2035 that go much further, much faster,” Guterres said.

The European Union has not yet reached agreement on its new UN-mandated climate target, instead drafting plans to submit a temporary goal, which could change.

EU President Ursula Van der Leyen told the summit the EU was on track to reach its 2030 target of slashing emissions 55% by 2030, and the bloc’s 2035 reduction goal would range between 66% and 72%.

Australia, which plans to host a UN climate summit next year, announced a pledge that by 2035, it would slash greenhouse gas to between 62% and 70% below 2005 levels.

“We want to bring the world with us on climate change, not by asking any nation to forgo the jobs or security that its people deserve, but by working with every nation to seize and share those opportunities,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

The South Pacific island nation of Palau, representing the 39-member Alliance of Small Island States, announced its own goal of slashing emissions to 44% of 2015 levels by 2035.

Palau’s President Surangel Whipps reminded leaders of the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice earlier this year affirming an “obligation grounded in international law” for countries to take stronger measures to curb their emissions.

“Those with the greatest responsibility and the greatest capacity to act must do far more,” he said, in reference to the world’s industrialized nations.