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2025 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

9. China and the Climate Change Challenge of the Twenty-First Century

Authors : Juan González García, Ángel Licona Michel, Maricela Reyes López

Published in: Transition to a Safe Anthropocene in the Asia-Pacific

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

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Abstract

China is one of the major contributors to global environmental degradation. In the twenty-first century, China has become the main emitter of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). This contribution is mainly due to its high economic growth rate of over 8% per year between 1979 and 2022, which has generated positive effects, such as the elimination of extreme poverty by 2020 and, to a lesser extent, containing the advance of income inequality. However, it has affected the natural resources, and contributed to climate change (CC), displacing the United States as the planet’s main polluter in 2005. This chapter analyzes the Chinese response to the international community and its actions related to climate change. The main conclusion is that what this nation achieves in the next 75 years of this century, will be determinant in the global fight against climate change.

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previous chapter Green Technology Innovation System as a Chinese Solution to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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Title: China and the Climate Change Challenge of the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Juan González García
Ángel Licona Michel
Maricela Reyes López
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland
Book: Transition to a Safe Anthropocene in the Asia-Pacific
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-66520-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-66521-9

Copyright Year: 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66521-9_9

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