China has announced its new climate action plan at a UN climate meeting — its first ever pledge to include absolute targets for cutting planet-warming gases — setting a goal of reducing emissions by 7–10 percent by 2035.

Here’s what to know:

– Why it matters –

China is the world’s second biggest economy, and since 2006, the largest polluter, now accounting for nearly 30 percent of global emissions. Paradoxically, it is also a clean energy powerhouse, rapidly shifting to renewable energy while selling the world its solar panels, batteries and electric cars.

Beijing’s trajectory will be crucial to whether the world can limit end-of-century warming to 1.5C, the threshold UN scientists say is needed to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate disruption.

Under the Paris Agreement, c

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