China to Start Setting Hard Targets for Cutting Emissions

China is planning a shift in the way it aims to control greenhouse gases, favoring hard targets for total carbon emissions over its current method of measuring them against economic growth.

China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming pollution, has for years set targets that aim to reduce energy use or emissions per unit of gross domestic product, a system it refers to as intensity. That approach has allowed China to tout environmental successes even as its total emissions soared, so long as they didn’t grow faster than the overall economy.