China, the world’s worst polluter, is becoming an unlikely climate leader 

analysis

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses a climate summit at UN headquarters on Wednesday. Xi’s speech was a signal that China will pick up the mantle of climate leadership.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed a United Nations environmental summit on Wednesday, the impacts of the continuing climate disaster were on full display in southern China, where more than a million people had to be evacuated ahead of Super Typhoon Ragasa, the strongest storm on Earth so far this year.

While typhoons are an annual occurrence in the South China Sea, they have been growing in frequency and intensity as a result of warming waters, and scientists warn that even cities built to be resilient to strong storms – such as Hong Kong – may not be prepared for the scale of future weather disas