Signaling a major shift in its climate policy, China, the world’s largest carbon-polluting nation (spewing over 31% of global carbon dioxide), announced its first-ever goal to cut absolute emissions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged that the country would aim to reduce its emissions by 7–10% by 2035 from peak levels, at the high-level climate summit at the United Nations.
This commitment to an absolute reduction target is a significant policy evolution, moving beyond previous goals that focused only on emissions intensity. The announcement came as more than 100 world leaders gathered to boost urgency and stronger efforts to curb heat-trapping gases ahead of major climate negotiations in Brazil.
Renewable energy and global diplomatic tensions:
President Xi further outlined an ambitious domestic renewable energy strategy, pledging that China will increase its wind and solar power sixfold from 2020 levels and make pollution-free vehicles mainstream.
The announcement served as a rallying point for international climate action. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the EU’s progress, noting emissions are down nearly 40% since 1940 and that member states are working to formally submit a new climate plan with reductions between 66% and 72%.
However, the summit also underscored geopolitical tensions. Both President Xi and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took thinly veiled swipes at the U.S. President’s recent criticism of renewable energy. President Xi stated that the international community should “stay focused on the right direction” even “while some country is acting against it.”
Science, catastrophe, and the Paris goal:
The urgency was driven home by global leaders from nations already facing climate devastation. Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif described the country’s ongoing crisis from intense monsoon rains and devastating urban flooding, following the $30 billion losses inflicted by the 2022 floods.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine issued a direct “demand for us all to wake up,” noting her small island nation’s hospitals and schools are already being destroyed by rising tides.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged that current global plans have reduced the projected warming path to 2.6∘C, down from 4∘C. However, he stressed that this remains far short of the 1.5∘C goal of the Paris climate accord, urging countries to go “much further, much faster” to avert unmanageable impacts.
