China shows massive responsibility on climate change: scholars

SINGAPORE, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- China has demonstrated great responsibility on climate change, two Singaporean scholars have said in a recent commentary carried by a local newspaper.

Kishore Mahbubani and Bertrand Seah made the remarks in their commentary "Climate Justice: The Real Story," published by the Straits Times on Monday.

Mahbubani is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore, and Seah is a research assistant at the ARI.

The largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in cumulative terms is the United States, with a contribution of 25 percent, the commentary said.

After the Trump administration came into office in January 2017, it walked away from the Paris Agreement, which called on all countries, both developed and developing, to make contributions, it said.

Once again, "in another massive act of responsibility," China and the rest of the world respected their commitments, the two scholars noted.

What is truly remarkable here is that China has not just met its commitments, it has also enhanced them, they added.

Climate change is not happening just because of the new "flows" of greenhouse gases from developing countries. Climate change is also a result of the "stock" of greenhouse gas emissions created by Western industrialized countries since the Industrial Revolution began two centuries ago, they said.