L’émergence d’un nouveau champion de la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique ? Les dessous des politiques environnementales chinoises

While the United States is currently disengaging from the fight against global warming, the Chinese leaders would like to present their country as the new champion of this international fight. Adopted in March 2016 by the National People's Congress, the 13th Five-Year Plan includes China's major environmental objectives, set in full accord with the Paris agreement signed in 2015. Yet it is important to bear in mind that the stagnation of CO2 emissions, with a peak forecast for 2030, is mainly allowed by the economic slowdown observed since 2013. And all the more so as the energy transition and investments in renewable energies appear as solutions in order to escape this slowdown in the national economy. However, the picture of China's environmental policies is much darker and less likely to be harmonious when emphasis is put on massive layoffs caused by this transition, partially circumscribed by various strategies from local governments, or on environmental problems posed by the exploitation of rare earths, essential for the production of new energies. The Chinese energy transition is thus far from being as simple and respectable as the international praise of this new policy might suggest.