Trump’s victory may allow China to take climate leadership role

Climate change skeptic Donald Trump’s victory as president will likely put an end the United States’ leadership role in the international fight against global warming, allowing China to take the lead role.

The Asian country of China worked closely with the Obama administration to build support for the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, which aims to tackle global warming by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The two countries’ partnership on climate change encouraged nearly two hundred the countries to sign the pact last year.

But, the pact could suffer as the United States, one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitter, may withdraw as Trump has repeated argued that the notion of global warming is nothing more than a “hoax.” He also warned during his election campaign that he would “cancel” the Paris Agreement, if he was elected as the next president.

Senior Chinese climate talk negotiator Zou Ji, who is also the deputy director of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy, said China could improve its international image and occupy a higher moral ground by taking a lead role in the fight against global warming.

Speaking on the topic, Ji said, “China’s influence and voice are likely to increase in global climate governance, which will then spill over into other areas of global governance and increase China's global standing, power and leadership.”

Average global temperature has already soared by 1 degree Celsius as compared with pre-industrial levels, and it is still on the increase. The Paris Agreement has a goal to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and to try to keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius by cutting manmade emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2).