Climate Changed
Trump Cedes Climate Policy Leadership to Xi With Paris Accord Exit
- Xi is handed a win in efforts to burnish China’s global image
- China has emerged as world’s biggest clean-energy investor
How China Benefits From U.S. Climate Pact Withdrawal
This article is for subscribers only.
President Donald Trump’s decision to isolate the U.S. on climate change has handed China a golden opportunity to burnish its image as a global leader, even as it angers and unsettles European allies.
Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate -- aligning the U.S. with Syria and Nicaragua as the only holdouts from an accord reached by almost 200 nations -- leaves a leadership void to be filled. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Trump at a summit last month that the retreat would signal a U.S. willingness to let less benign powers, like China, step up on the international stage.