Climate not a contest for China, US

Tom Friedman's recent column in The New York Times, "How Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Will Make China Great Again", is characteristically sharp and timely. He rightly sounded the alarm over the possibility — now a reality — of US President Donald Trump rolling back hard-won clean energy policies, not only jeopardizing the United States' economic future but also undermining the global fight against climate change.

But by claiming that China is the primary beneficiary of Trump's anti-environment decisions — and by implication, the US' adversary — Friedman has risked reinforcing the kind of zero-sum logic that has long paralyzed global climate cooperation.

China has made tremendous progress in clean energy. It leads the world in solar and wind power generation and use, dominates the global supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, and has invested huge amounts in green infrastructure at scale. But these gains have taken years to achieve and come with severe challenges. China still relies heavily on coal for power generation for economic growth and people's livelihood, and the country's transition to clean energy still needs long time to complete — it's not an easy task.