NEW YORK — For years, the Obama administration prodded, cajoled, and beseeched China to commit to limit the use of fossil fuels in a bid to slow the global effects of climate change.
President Obama and other US officials saw the pledges from both Beijing and Washington as crucial: China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, followed by the United States.
In the coming years, the opposite dynamic is poised to play out. President Trump’s signing Tuesday of an executive order that aimed to undo many of the Obama administration’s climate change policies could flip the roles of the two powers.
Now, it is far likelier that the world will see China pushing the United States to meet its commitments and try to live up to the letter and spirit of the 2015 Paris Agreement, even if Trump has signaled he has no intention of doing so.
“They’ve set the direction they intend to go in the next five years,’’ Barbara Finamore, a senior lawyer and Asia director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York, said of China. “It’s clear they intend to double down on bringing down their reliance on coal and increasing their use of renewable energy.’’
“China wants to take over the role of the US as a climate leader, and they’ve baked it into their five-year plans,’’ she added, referring to the economic development blueprints drawn up by the government.
Even before the presidential campaign, Trump had made statements consistent with climate change denial, including calling it a hoax created by China. He has threatened to formally withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Since Trump’s election in November, senior Chinese officials have been taking the high ground on the issue by urging that all countries, including the United States, abide by their climate commitments.
The biggest rhetorical turning point came in January, when Xi Jinping, China’s president, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Paris Agreement was “hard won’’ and should remain in force.
“All signatories should stick to it instead of walking away from it, as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations,’’ he said.
Other Chinese officials at Davos repeated that message, including the energy minister, Nur Bekri, and top executives of state-owned enterprises.
In an interview before the recent climate conference in Marrakech, Chai Qimin, a climate change researcher and policy adviser, said that policies adopted at a recent Communist Party meeting showed that China “has attached ever greater importance to ecological civilization and green development.’’
“Everyone is taking this more and more seriously,’’ he added.
On Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing that China would stick to its pledges “regardless of how other countries’ climate policies change.’’
Global Times, a state-run nationalist newspaper, used harsher language in an editorial chastising the Trump administration for “brazenly shirking its responsibility on climate change.’’
“It is undermining the great cause of mankind trying to protect the Earth,’’ the editorial said, “and the move is indeed irresponsible and very disappointing.’’
The editorial also questioned why China was making concessions on fossil-fuel use when the United States was scrapping its promises: “How can China, still underdeveloped, give away a chunk of room for development, just to nourish those Western countries that are already rich?’’
