China is crushing it on climate change, study says

The world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases is on track to peak its emissions by 2025, according to a new study – a full five years ahead of schedule. 

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While economies across the globe struggle to even formulate climate goals, one country may be ahead of its own ambitious schedule.

China – the world’s No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases – is on track to peak emissions five years ahead of its pledged goal, according to a new study from the London School of Economics. By 2025, China’s planet-warming emissions will reach an upper limit, the study says, and begin a steady descent that scientists say is critical to curbing the worst effects of climate change.

“They could peak even earlier than that,” Fergus Green and Nicholas Stern, the authors of the London School of Economics study, wrote in their report. “With a comprehensive approach to reform, [emissions] could also fall rapidly post-peak.”

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The study is welcome news for climate negotiators working toward a deal that would cut greenhouse emissions. Negotiators, who will meet in December to finalize a global climate agreement, have a lofty goal: Keep warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many observers wonder if such an ambitious goal is even possible given the emissions reductions pledges countries have put on the table so far. Those pledges will be the raw material for the carbon-cutting deal that world leaders aim to reach at climate talks in Paris this December. And news of China’s better-than-expected progress lends momentum to pre-talk deliberations.

“This finding suggests it is increasingly likely that the world will avoid global warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial levels,” Mr. Green and Mr. Stern said in a statement.

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