China leads nations with new climate plans, defying U.S. climate denial

China led several countries in announcing new climate plans on Wednesday and offered a veiled rebuke of the U.S. president’s anti-climate rhetoric a day earlier at the U.N.

China led several countries in announcing new climate plans on Wednesday and offered a veiled rebuke of the U.S. president’s anti-climate rhetoric a day earlier at the U.N. General Assembly.

Addressing a climate leaders’ summit hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a live video message from Beijing that by 2035 his country would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% from their peak.

In addition, Xi said China planned to increase its wind and solar power capacity by six times from its 2020 levels within the next 10 years — helping to increase its share of non-fossil fuels in domestic energy consumption to over 30%.

China‘s reduction target marked the first time the world’s biggest emitter pledged a cut in emissions, rather than just limiting their growth, though the reduction was less than many observers had expected.

Xi urged stronger climate action from the world’s developed countries. He referred, though not by name, to the United States for moving away from the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.