Beijing seeks teamwork in Paris pact

China and other countries will stick to their pledges in the Paris Agreement to combat climate change after US President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the pact, officials and experts said.

“It is not appropriate to say China should assume a sole leadership role in the international community with the US withdrawal,” Guo Jiaofeng, a senior environmental analyst at the Development Research Center of the State Council, a government think tank, told China Daily during the eighth Clean Energy Ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

“It does provide more opportunities for China to enhance cooperation with other parties, to together push the pact forward,” he said, referring to bodies such as the European Union or nations like India.

“Some key members among the nearly 200 parties involved in the Paris pact will together fill the void left by the United States,” he said.

One reason the world shouldn’t push China too much at this time is that parties in the pact should follow common but differentiated principles, Guo said.

“We have all reached agreement on this when we sealed the pact,” he said, “so there is no need to change China’s pledges simply due to the departure of one key partner.”

China aims by 2030 to cut its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent from 2005 levels. It also intends to reach its peak of carbon emissions by 2030.

Discussions arose after the US on Thursday announced it would exit the pact.

A report released by the International Energy Agency on Tuesday shows global growth in energy-related CO2 emissions appears to have flattened.

One main factor behind the recent slowdown in CO2 emissions growth is the reduction of coal use in the US and China, the report said.

China has strong internal motives to seek a green transformation driven by “our beliefs to see sustainable growth and by worries about air pollution”, said Wang Yiming, vice-president of the think tank.

It is not appropriate to say China should assume a sole leadership role.” Guo Jiaofeng, senior analyst at government think tank