The New York Times believes the country with the worst climate record is poised to become the world’s top environmental champion, thanks to President Donald Trump’s global warming skepticism.
China could become the next climate change warrior and standard bearer for good environmental stewardship, the paper noted Wednesday, adding that the Asian country that was once prodded and poked by the U.S. into compliance on climate matters could become the prodder.
“Now, it is far likelier that the world will see China pushing the United States to meet its commitments and try to meet up to the letter and spirit of the 2015 Paris agreement, even if Mr. Trump has signaled no intention of doing so,” The NYT’s Edward Wong wrote.
Wong was referencing the climate summit agreement forged between former President Barack Obama, China’s President Xi Jinping and others singed in 2015. The deal — forged between nearly 200 countries — aims to keep so-called man-made global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and commits the U.S. to cut emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025.
The NYT acknowledged China’s position as the most polluted country in the world, but neglected to mention that U.S. President Donald Trump is a proponent of natural gas, a relatively new fossil fuel source that has contributed to sizable greenhouse gas reductions over the years. The NYT’s argument hinges on Trump’s generally antithetical environmental views, as well as his recent executive orders repealing various climate rules signed during the Obama-era.
Trump promised to eliminate his predecessor’s climate regulations, as well as the Paris climate summit agreement during the presidential campaign. He followed through on at least one of his objectives on Wednesday, repealing the so-called Clean Power Plan, which sought to reduce greenhouse emissions nearly 30 percent over the next several years.
The president’s order directs EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to review and work to repeal or revise the CPP, rescinds the Interior Department’s moratorium on coal mining leases on federal lands.
It also repeals the previous administration’s guidance on how agents take global warming into account when crafting reviews for various energy projects, and all but eliminates the program that determines the “social cost of carbon,” or the SCC.
China, meanwhile, is the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, followed by the U.S. — many climate scientists argue causes climate change. There is no indication China has any intention of reducing these levels, even as environmentalists and academics continue to claim the country is on the right track.
The communist country promised to “peak” emissions by 2030, yet its government plans to increase its coal capacity up to 20 percent. Climate scientists consider coal production to be the primary contributor to global warming.
China’s new five-year plan would “raise coal-fired power capacity from around 900 gigawatts last year to as high as 1,100 gigawatts by 2020,” which is “more than the total power capacity of Canada,” The Wall Street Journal reported last year.
Trump, on the other hand, is a major proponent of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Natural gas production has drastically reduced U.S. carbon emissions in recent years, largely due to power plants switching from burning coal to natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing and stricter federal regulations brought emissions in the first half of 2016 to their lowest levels since 1991.
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