Politics
15:52, 05-Jan-2018
Former US president: China leading climate change fight
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Former US president Jimmy Carter has applauded China’s role in combatting climate change, describing the country as “taking the leadership” on the issue.
Speaking to James Chau in a CGTN Global Future interview, Carter said that while the US had been a leading voice in the world’s fight against climate change in recent decades “nowadays the situation has completely changed.”
“Back a few decades ago the United States was in the forefront of leading the fight to clean the environment, to deal with the threats of global warming. Nowadays, the situation has changed completely. China has become the leader I think in the world.”
China has identified low-carbon as key to technologies of the future and is developing into a world leader in renewables. In 2017 alone, it announced the launch of a carbon trading scheme and set out plans to phase out the use of fossil fuel cars over the coming years.
Former US president Jimmy Carter with James Chau. /CGTN Photo
Former US president Jimmy Carter with James Chau. /CGTN Photo
The US, meanwhile, announced plans to pull out of the “common cause” Paris climate deal and under President Donald Trump is promoting coal as an energy source.
Eliminating poverty
The 39th US president has dedicated his life since leaving office to improving the fortunes of others. In a wide-ranging interview, Carter also addressed income inequality and poverty.
The Carter Center, the philanthropic body set up by the former president, operates across the world, going to places others won’t to provide medicine, development expertise and even mediate in conflict zones.
“We still have too many poor people, too much disease on Earth, and too many wars going on,” he lamented.
Carter described China’s plan to eliminate poverty by 2020 as an “admirable goal” and expressed confidence that it can be achieved.
“I don't think it is going to be closed out in the next three years in other parts of the world but I think I have confidence in China,” Carter said. “It will be able to meet President Xi Jinping's goal.”
More than 66 million people have been lifted out of poverty in China over the past five years, an official statement said on December 29. At the end of 2016, there were 43.35 million Chinese living below the national poverty line.
Watch the full interview with Carter, in which he recalls relations with China during his presidency as well as his thoughts on easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula here.