NewTop emitter China ‘doing things right’ on global warming’: UN climate official

It may be more known for its smog problems and its sizeable greenhouse gas emissions, but a UN climate change official says China is “doing it right” when it comes to addressing global warming, a report says.

In an interview with Bloomberg at its New York headquarters, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, called China’s energy-efficiency standards for buildings and transportation as “some of the toughest”.

She said the nation was realising that such efforts would pay off in the future.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at. They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest,” she said in the report.

Figueres, 57, cited the nation’s efforts towards energy efficiency, including helping reduce the cost of solar panels by 80 per cent since 2008 after backing photovoltaic technology, the report said.

Compared to countries like the United States, Figueres also suggested that China could implement policies more smoothly as it faced less legislative stumbling blocks.