China Envoy Says Economic Competition Is the New Climate Risk

(Bloomberg) — Economic competition between nations has become the new hurdle in the fight against climate change, according to China’s new climate chief.

Political roadblocks have impacted climate negotiations for decades now, such as when the U.S. withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, said Liu Zhenmin, who was named Beijing’s Special Climate Envoy earlier this year. Now the battle over who will profit from the tools combating global warming is creating new frictions.