A Chinese labourer stands next to a cooling pit at an unauthorized steel factory on Nov. 4, 2016, in Inner Mongolia, China. (Photo : Getty Images)
China has recently announced that it wants to take on the leadership role in promoting the Paris Agreement. However, it looks like China's ability to perform the task is still questionable because of the lack of transparency in its carbon emissions data.
Despite numerous scientific papers supporting the existence of climate change as a global phenomenon, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump called it a hoax created by China.
In 2012, Trump posted a tweet saying that climate change was created by China in order to secure an unfair trade advantage.
And it seems he still hasn't changed his view on the matter, as the soon-to-be U.S. president said that he plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions.
With this, it is possible that Washington might lessen the pressure on China's compliance of the agreement, encouraging it to become less and less transparent on its data submission.
The agreement requires countries to report and submit for verification their respective carbon emissions data. But with the agreement resting on the foundation of transparency and good faith, it has been challenging to get accurate and timely reports.
Just like other countries, China has refused to submit itself to international monitoring and stated that it will provide the data to outside observers.
Known as one of the world's biggest polluters, it seems that China is making efforts to reduce its emissions by shifting to renewable energy.
China has planned to build renewable energy sources which will be completed by the year 2020. The $361 billion project included solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power aims to form half of all new electricity generation by the said year. The government estimates that this project will generate energy that is equivalent to 580 metric tons of coal.
With Trump's stance on climate change, China issued blunt warnings to the president-elect and U.S. leaders if they choose to abandon international efforts to combat the problem.
"If they resist this trend, I don't think they'll win the support of their people. Their country's economic and social progress will also be affected," said Xie Zenhua, China's long time climate negotiator.
If China is serious in pursuing its desire to lead the battle against climate change, it must then lead by example. Aside from shifting towards renewable energy sources, it must be able to properly and accurately report its emissions data to encourage the rest of the countries to follow suit.
