Publication

China's emissions growth is driven by its rapid economic and industrial growth and its reliance on fossil fuels despite measures to raise the shares of nonfossil energy sources. Debate on potential climate change legislation in the United States has been influenced by China’s surging GHG emissions, and uncertainty over whether, how, and when China might alter that trend. There is concern that strong U.S. domestic action taken without Chinese reciprocity would unfairly advantage China in global trade, and fail to slow significantly the growth of atmospheric concentrations of GHGs.