China struggles to cut coal use as world loses battle on climate change
Bleak assessment comes on second anniversary of Paris Agreement and after report suggests China’s 2017 carbon emissions set to rise 3.5pc
Two years after the Paris climate agreement was adopted, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned of slow progress in the fight against global warming, which has hit bumps both in the United States and China – the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters.
“We are losing the battle,” he said at the One Planet Summit on Tuesday on the second anniversary of the Paris accord, under which almost 200 countries agreed to take action to limit temperature increases.
Macron’s bleak assessment came after US President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the climate pact, and China – the world’s biggest carbon emitter – reported a recovery in emissions over the past year.
China produces nearly a third of all greenhouse gases, but as Beijing expands its role in global governance, it has shown a greater willingness to participate in climate talks than has Washington.
But Beijing’s climate commitments have been overshadowed by its long-term reliance on coal-intensive sectors and its struggles to ensure stable supplies of cleaner fuels at home.