Climate Adaptation
These Charts Show How China Is Going Slow on Climate Action
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Anyone hoping the world’s biggest carbon emitter would use its annual parliamentary session to speed up action on climate change was left sorely disappointed this weekend.
Instead, China announced a raft of policies and targets that crystallized its priorities: economic growth and energy security come first, and reducing the flow of planet-heating greenhouse gases must not come at the expense of either. The stance won’t get in the way of long-term goals like peaking emissions by 2030 and zeroing them out by 2060, but it falls short of the immediate action scientists increasingly believe is necessary to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.