Pledges and actions

Yan Qin, a lead carbon analyst at Refinitiv, a global provider of financial market data and infrastructure that is part of the London Exchange Group, also stressed that China has been reducing pollution and cutting carbon emissions at the same time.

Yan and her colleagues were busy in Paris in 2015 when the landmark Paris Climate Accord was adopted.

"It was the cooperation between China and the United States, in particular China's emphasis on climate policy, that led to the Paris Agreement," she told China Daily. "All climate policy so far has been based on the Paris Agreement, and the global momentum on climate change can be attributed to it."

Xie Zhenhua, China's special envoy for climate change, said in August that the US is fully responsible for the current halt in China-US climate cooperation.

Despite the suspension, China is a proactive contributor to the global climate process by continuing to cooperate with other countries in dealing with climate change.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Paris Climate Conference, President Xi Jinping talked about the nation's rapid economic growth and significant improvement in lives, but pointed out that it had taken a toll on the environment and resources. "Having learned the lesson, China is vigorously making endeavors to promote green, circular and low-carbon growth," he told the conference.

Xi added that China has integrated its climate change efforts into its medium- and long-term program of socioeconomic development.

He pledged that China will adopt new policy measures to improve the industrial mix, build a low-carbon energy system, develop green construction and low-carbon transportation, and establish a nationwide carbon emission trading market to foster a new pattern of modernization based on harmony between humans and nature.

He also announced via video link to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020 that China will reach peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

China has also promised that by 2030, 25 percent of its energy will be derived from renewable energy and that it will reduce carbon intensity by more than 65 percent, achieve a combined capacity of solar and wind power generation of 1.2 billion kilowatts, and boost forest coverage by around 6 billion cubic meters.

The president's phrases "ecological civilization" and "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" have become guidelines for China's national sustainable development.

In a recent paper, Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his colleague, Chunping Xie, applauded Xi's pledge to the UN General Assembly. "This significant pledge shows China's long-term ambitions and priorities, and that the Chinese government has linked low-carbon development and carbon-neutral transition with the country's sustainable development and long-term prosperity," they said.