China's chance to set a green global example

Economy | Daniel Nyberg

China conspicuously stepped up its green rhetoric in the latter half of this year. President Xi Jinping's pledge that the country would never pursue short-term economic growth at the expense of environmental degradation was perhaps the clearest example of this significant shift in tone.

World Environment Day in June coincided with official confirmation that air pollution in Beijing had reached "very unhealthy" levels. The Ministry of Environmental Protection's theme of "Breathing and working together" sat uneasily with the all-too-familiar images of a smog-induced haze hanging over the capital.