China Briefing | Scepticism of China’s climate change promises is misplaced

Will China deliver on its ambitious promises to fight climate change or are those pledges part of a public relations offensive to distract attention from its confrontation with the United States and other major Western powers over human rights or Taiwan? Or are those commitments merely being used as a trade-off to gain concessions from Washington on other issues as the two countries try to reset their fraught bilateral ties?

These questions exemplify the lingering scepticism in the international community ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement in September last year that China aimed to have carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

The concerns look set to intensify as China and the US, the world’s two largest polluters, have shown renewed willingness to work together to tackle this momentous challenge.

On Thursday, Xi called for “unprecedented action and ambition” to tackle climate change at the Earth Day virtual summit hosted by US President Joe Biden, which also marked the first meeting between the two leaders since the latter took office.