China's efforts on climate deal partly down to its pollution

BEIJING, Dec 14: China's push for a global climate pact is partly because of its own increasingly pressing need to solve serious environmental problems. China says the Paris deal shows it is dealing with climate change "as a responsible big country."China is the world's biggest source of climate-changing gases and was blamed for obstructing the last high-level climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. This time around, it sent strong political signals it wanted a deal in Paris. That conference ended Saturday with the agreement to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100.

Jiang Kejun, senior researcher at China's Energy Research Institute, says Beijing's efforts are a result of its environmental challenges and because the effects of climate change are becoming clearer each year.

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