China: Climate Fight Won't Stall Without US
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- Huang Runqiu, China's environment minister, told a meeting in Brussels that "the multilateral process will not stop or even slow down because of the absence of individual countries."
- The meeting on climate action was co-hosted by China, the European Union, and Canada, with Japan, Australia, and South Africa also in attendance.
- Trump withdrew the U.S. — the world's biggest economy — from the Paris Agreement in January, the second time he has quit the accord after first doing so in 2017 during his first term.
- The Brussels gathering comes as nations prepare for another U.N. climate summit without the U.S. in the room.
- No other country has followed the U.S. lead in leaving the treaty, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: With the U.S. absent from the Paris Agreement for the second time and no other country following it out, China is publicly positioning itself as a defender of multilateral climate governance — filling a leadership vacuum the world's largest historical emitter has left open twice in eight years.
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