Quentin Parker

Opinion | China’s quiet strides in the climate change fight are an example to all

Despite the distraction of a host of other challenges, China has implemented a wide range of projects to tackle its own carbon footprint head-on, with an approach that is multifaceted, technology-focused and scalable

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Quentin Parker

Published: 10:30pm, 5 Jul 2023

A pristine area of rainforest the size of Switzerland was razed last year with untold loss of irreplaceable biodiversity. Enormous wildfires in Canada have unleashed vast quantities of carbon dioxide to exacerbate global warming while also choking residents across North America. Sea lions and dolphins are dying in unprecedented numbers off the coast of California, and storms, floods and famine of increasing regularity and seriousness are taking place worldwide.

You would have to be bereft of your senses and lack any grip on reality not to appreciate, with all the available evidence, that something dangerous is happening to the world’s climate and having seriously negative effects on all living things. It is accelerating and setting records – and not in the good way.

Many governments are starting to get serious, with fine words being spoken and even some coordinated actions taken through bodies such as the United Nations’ climate summits.

At the same time, there is a popular uprising of sorts, with groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. People in countries across the world are organising to demand their political leaders take bolder actions on climate change.

At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic, the terrible, grinding war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global crisis in cost of living, inflation and other related problems are distracting us at the worst possible time. These things are taking our attention from the urgent actions we must all take to help address the fundamental and existential threat the planet is facing.