A green new deal for China and the world?

Ahead of the UN climate change conference in Bonn from Nov 6 to 17, global attention was focused on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, where General Secretary Xi Jinping laid out China's blueprint for "green development", which devoted long chapters to the "environment", "ecology" and "green".

In fact China's emphasis on "green development" is far from new. Earlier this year, Xi defended the 2015 Paris Agreement in a speech at the United Nations, in striking contrast to US President Donald Trump's well-known climate change skepticism (or "climate change denial") and the European Union's ineffectiveness.

Xi raised similar points in his key speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, saying it is important to protect the environment while pursuing economic and social progress to achieve harmony between man and nature, and harmony between man and society.