China blasts Trump’s climate plan

China’s top climate change envoy on Tuesday criticized Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nominee’s plan to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Asked at a news conference in Beijing about Trump’s pledge to “cancel” the pact, Xie Zhenhua said China and other world powers are moving toward climate-friendly policies as part of last year’s agreement, while balancing with economic growth.

{mosads}“If they resist this trend, I don’t think they’ll win the support of their people, and their country’s economic and social progress will also be affected,” Xie said of a Trump administration, according to Reuters.

“I believe a wise political leader should take policy stances that conform with global trends,” he continued.

It was a rare public rebuke from China, whose leaders do not usually comment on foreign election politics.

Pulling the United States out of the Paris pact is a key energy policy goal of Trump, who says it is holding the United States’ energy industry back.

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a surrogate for Trump, said last week at an energy policy debate that a President Trump might submit the agreement for ratification in the Senate, where it would certainly fail, as it needs a two-thirds vote.

“That would send a very strong signal not just to global partners but to the people of the U.S. that our Constitution is still intact,” Cramer said.

Democrat Hillary Clinton has spoken highly of the Paris accord and plans to comply with it, despite the fact that its emissions limits are not binding.

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping worked closely on climate in the lead-up to the Paris agreement.

Obama claims credit for convincing China in 2014 to commit to limiting its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time, with a plan to reduce them after a peak in 2030.

At the same time that China announced that commitment in late 2014, Obama announced the United States’ contribution to the Paris pact: a 26 percent to 28 percent cut in emissions by 2025.