NEW YORK — China has announced a new climate action plan at a UN meeting — its first pledge to include absolute targets for cutting planet-warming gases — setting a goal of reducing emissions by 7–10 per cent by 2035.

Why it matters 

China is the world’s second biggest economy, and since 2006, the largest polluter, now accounting for nearly 30 per cent of global emissions. Paradoxically, it is also a clean energy powerhouse, rapidly shifting to renewable energy while selling the world its solar panels, batteries and electric cars.

Beijing’s trajectory will be crucial to whether the world can limit end-of-century warming to 1.5C, the threshold UN scientists say is needed to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate disruption.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries must update their “Nationally Determined Contributions” every five years. With the year’s main climate summit in Brazil fast approaching in November, expectations were running high for President Xi Jinping’s announcement Wednesday at the United Nations.

China’s 2021 pledge was to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060. But it lacked near-term numerical targets, frustrating international observers.

The geopolitical context has raised the stakes: the United States has again quit the Paris accord under Donald Trump, who dismisses climate change as a “con job,” while a fractious European Union has yet to set a new target.