While global confidence in tackling climate change has been affected by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's avowed scepticism, China will firmly fulfill its own promises even if the U.S., the world's second-largest carbon polluter, reneges on theirs, experts said.
The U.S. special envoy for climate change, Jonathan Pershing, said he "can't speculate" in response to questions on the U.S. policy over climate agreements under Trump at a press conference during the 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Morocco's Marrakesh on Monday, the China News Agency (CNA) reported.
Trump has pledged to roll back the Obama administration's environmental policies, including the Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, according to the Associated Press.
China's position on dealing with climate change is firm and consistent. Xie Ji, deputy chief of the Chinese delegation to COP22, was quoted by CNA on Thursday as saying that "China will reach peak carbon emission around 2030, and many cities in China have already promised they will reach their peak around 2020."
"I don't think they will win their people's support, and U.S. economic and social progress will also be impacted," Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative for climate change, said of Trump's policies before the vote, the Guardian reported.
"Trump's uncertainty on climate change agreements has highlighted China's responsibility as a great power," Wang Yiwei, a senior fellow of International Relations at the Renmin University, told the Global Times. "Despite the U.S. future moves, China will keep up its efforts and promises."
Wang also pointed out that "Trump may not renege on the Paris Agreement since the Obama administration has already signed on behalf of the U.S., but Trump may choose not to execute the agreement seriously in order to protect some enterprises with greater emissions."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that action on climate change has become "unstoppable", and he hoped that Trump would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels, Reuters reported.
