The world might be witnessing the bending of a key climate curve. Various projections have suggested that carbon emissions from China, the world's largest emitter, will probably peak soon ' if they haven't already ' well ahead of Beijing's pledge that they would peak before 2030. 'What happens with China's emissions in the next year and next decade is absolutely decisive for the success of the global climate effort,' says Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst who has tracked China's emissions trends for more than a decade and is a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a think-tank based in Washington DC. But some researchers say that current peak predictions have big uncertainties owing to various factors, such as the future path of China's economy. And although reaching the peak will be a major climate milestone, China's emissions must continue to fall to net zero, which could be challenging, say some researchers. China reports its greenhouse-gas emissions to the United Nations...
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