Business and Economy
Trump boosts coal as China takes the lead on climate change
As President Donald Trump hosts President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the world’s two largest economies and carbon polluters are taking dramatically divergent paths on climate policy. (Photo: Donald J. Trump/ Facebook)
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump hosts President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the world’s two largest economies and carbon polluters are taking dramatically divergent paths on climate policy.
With Trump suggesting he might pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, Xi is poised to become the world’s foremost leader on climate change.
The Chinese government recently cancelled construction of more than 100 new, coal-fired power plants and plans to invest at least $360 billion in green energy projects by 2020. It is a building boom expected to create an estimated 13 million jobs.
Trump signed an executive order last week rolling back Obama-era policies regulating carbon emissions. He has pledged to reverse decades of decline in coal mining, which accounts for about 75,000 U.S. jobs.
