China’s ambitious pledge to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 shows the country’s firm determination to fight climate change, widely hailed by the international community. However, some western politicians still accuse China of inadequate action on this issue. Such remarks are false narratives and can be misleading in a time that calls for global cooperation.

Some call China out for giving itself a longer timeline to eliminate greenhouse gas emission, ten years later than the deadline of the European Union (EU) and the United States.

This simple comparison overlooks the fact that China is still a developing country, while the rest are developed ones, most of which have already seen their emission peak. For instance, the EU’s CO2 emissions plateaued in the 1990s while the US reached its peak in 2007, leaving them 50 to 60 years to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. China vows to realize the goal from carbon peak to neutrality in just 30 years, which shows extraordinary commitment and requires strenuous efforts.

Others may argue China is now the world’s biggest CO2 emitter, and needs to do more. Yet from a historical perspective, the US has been the world’s largest emitter with the most greenhouse gas emissions in cumulative terms, roughly three times that of China. In per capita terms, the US has long been among the biggest carbon emitter, registering 14.6 tons of per capita CO2 emissions from fossil fuel in 2017, 3.3 times the global average and more than twice that of China.

Doing the math here is not for playing the blame game since each country has its own national conditions and development stage. As climate change is a pressing global challenge that requires joint efforts, countries should honor their respective commitment and respect international consensus.

Over the years, China has actively implemented the Paris Agreement and achieved its 2020 climate change targets ahead of schedule. Satellite data show that more than a quarter of the newly added green space in the world between 2000 and 2017 was in China, making it the largest contributor to the greening of the global landscape. The country’s renewable energy investment has exceeded $100 billion for five consecutive years. In addition, since 2010, China's new energy vehicles have doubled in annual growth rate, accounting for 55 percent of global new energy vehicle sales.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, fighting climate change has been hijacked as a partisan issue, resulting in major retrogression on climate change and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during the Trump administration.

When the new US administration named climate change one of its top priorities and announced its expected return to the Paris Agreement, China expressed its sincere welcome.

In fact, China and the US are no strangers to cooperation on climate change. The two countries have played positive roles in paving the way for the negotiation and success of the Paris Agreement. They also share broad common interests and abundant room for cooperation in coping with climate change. Some specific areas with promise for cooperation include climate-related investments, zero-emission vehicles and governance of low-carbon cities, to name just a few.

No country can solve climate change alone. It requires global action, now. China has already shown its readiness to cooperate with the US and the international community on climate change with words and deeds. Now is the time for the US to catch up and fill its four-year gap.