Global climate change intentions become commitments

Global agreements are about turning intentions into commitments — and commitments into action. That’s why it’s so important that China, Canada, and the United States took key steps this week to advance the global climate goals leaders set last December in Paris.

Wind turbines near
Mt Hood in Oregon, USA.

First came word that China cut its coal consumption for the second year in a row. The world’s largest user of coal and largest emitter of the carbon pollution driving climate change, China burned 3.7 percent less coal last year than it did in 2014. In 2014, coal consumption fell 2.9 percent.

The country’s economy continued to grow at an official 2015 rate of 6.9 percent. The amount of energy consumed as a share of economic output, though, fell 5.6 percent.

Read Rhea Suh’s Natural Resources Defense Council blog - “A Big Week for Climate Action.”