China has acted with an “iron hand” towards climate change.  As the largest inventor of wind turbines, the country has some of the most stringent energy campaigns and technology standards.  The nation’s goals include reducing carbon emissions per unit economic output by 40 to 45% by 2020, and a main way of reaching this goal has been cutting fossil fuels out of energy production.  Already, coal-fired power plants in China are more energy efficient than those in the US, and the country has shut down over one thousand in the last three years to make room for new power technology.  Also, China has ordered the shut-down of other inefficient industry factories, such as the Guangshou Steel mill which employs thousands of workers.
Despite these efforts, China is projected to soon emit over a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. Raising emissions levels are due to population growth and higher demand for a Westernized lifestyle, which includes bigger cars and better apartments.
The Chinese government has tried to mitigate emissions from the “low-hanging fruit:” namely, industrial sources.  But it is much harder to effect change on an individual level. The emissions from Chinese citizens are still less than 50% of emissions from an average American’s lifestyle. Both countries, as well as other global leaders in population size, economy and technology, need to control the environmental impacts of their industries and their people.