The United States on Wednesday (September 22) welcomed China's decision to stop building coal-fired power plants abroad, but called on Chinese authorities to do more at home to fight climate change.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made the announcement Tuesday during his speech at the UN Annual General Assembly, a significant promise hailed by environmentalists.
Read alsoTo limit global warming, coal, gas and oil must remain underground
"We welcome this announcement but we also believe that more needs to be done
," an American official told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations meeting in New York.
"We hope to hear more about the additional steps they can take, during this decisive decade, to reduce their national emissions"
of greenhouse gases, he added on condition of anonymity.
Read alsoChina to stop building coal-fired power plants abroad
According to the official, new Chinese measures would
"help bring the world closer to a trajectory to prevent temperatures from rising much more than 1.5 ° C"
from the pre-industrial level, the ideal goal of the Paris climate agreement concluded in 2015 but which seems increasingly out of reach.
The US envoy for the climate crisis, John Kerry, estimated in early September during a visit to China that the continued construction of coal-fired power plants in the Asian country risked undermining global efforts to fight climate change.
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