China Slams Donald Trump's Climate Change Hoax; More On Business And Political Opportunities, Research Shows

As many could remember, President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign period called the climate change "hoax" that China made. The new study shows that China does not mean hoax but it is more on business and political opportunities.

As reported previously by The New York Times, Liu Zhenmin, the deputy foreign minister of China, told the reporters during the climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, that since the 1980s, the past president of the United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush supported the climate change negotiations under a United Nations panel.

Thus, Bloomberg reported that China's President Xi Jinping gives emphasize on the importance of the cooperation between the two largest economies. Liu Zhenmin added that China will continue to fight the effects of climate change "whatever the circumstances."

In addition, President Liu Jinping said that the richer nations should be more responsible compared to the poorer countries as they have the capability to fight against climate change.

Meanwhile, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California-Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Matthew Kahn conducted a research. He said that to slow down the climate change globally is to reduce accumulated global emissions. However, the individual efforts coming from each nation are too small to "solve" the problem. Prof. Kahn wrote, "so it has only weak incentives to take costly mitigation actions and strong incentives to 'free ride' on the benefits of emission reductions by other countries."

In line with this, the angle that Prof. Kahn is looking at is that when President-elect Donald Trump decides to "cancel" the Paris Agreement and demolish President Obama's carbon mitigation initiatives following standard economic logic. Also, if the United States backs out of the commitments to reduce the national emissions, the U.S. can still benefit from the efforts of other countries.

Now, why does China press ahead with the low-carbon initiatives? Prof. Kahn's research suggested that the country has several motives. The Chinese leaders want to develop the quality of life in their nation by reducing air pollutions.

In addition, he wrote in the full article for Conversation that China will also "win large shares of promising export markets for green technologies; and increase China's "soft power" in international relations. Taking aggressive action to cut carbon emissions helps China in all three areas." The three areas would be Pursuing green and profitable export markets, reducing coal's cruel impacts and Investing in soft power.