China Helps Pave the Road to Paris with Ambitious Climate Pledge

China formally pledged last Tuesday to play an ambitious role in curbing its carbon dioxide emissions over the next 15 years.  It represented a major contribution toward the success of climate treaty talks by the world's biggest source of global warming pollution.

As had been expected, China said its carbon emissions would peak by 2030 or sooner, with carbon-free energy providing 20 percent of its needs.  Its government also set a new, loftier goal for energy efficiency, saying that by 2030 the carbon intensity of its economy would fall by 60 to 65 percent compared to 2005.  Its previous vow was 40 to 45 percent by 2020. And it promised to ramp up reforestation.

"A one-thousand-mile journey starts from the first step," the document declared, using one of China's most famous aphorisms.  It was an apt expression, acknowledging that the world cannot solve the climate crisis all at once, but that leading nations must create credible momentum if calamity is to be averted.

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