As Trump drags US backwards, China's massive spending on clean energy delivers reduction targets 12 years early
Twelve
years ahead of schedule, a new report finds that China may already
have had its worst year for carbon emissions—a sign that the
world's largest producer of greenhouse gases could be well on its way
to meeting the goals put forth by the Paris climate agreement.
"As
part of the Paris Agreement, China pledged to peak its CO2 emissions
by 2030. In retrospect, the commitment may have been fulfilled as it
was being made," wrote several scientists who reported on
their findings in Nature Geoscience on Tuesday.
The
study found that China produced 9.2 billion tons of carbon in 2016,
down from 9.5 billion tons in 2013. The emission levels of the
country, which surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest carbon
producer in 2007, have declined every year from 2014 to 2016.
The
downward slope represents "stability," according to Dabo
Guan, a professor of climate change economics at the University of
East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
"This
is quite important, because it can play a demonstration role to the
global South countries like India or Indonesia," Guan told
the Daily Beast. "The future of climate change mitigation is
in the hands of the global South countries."
Full
report:
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