China has stepped up its efforts to keep the Paris agreement in place following the U.S. withdrawal. The EU and China issued a joint statement underscoring their commitments to the Paris accord to combat climate change. China pledged to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 or earlier as part of a joint pledge made with the U.S. ahead of the 2015 Paris talks. A U.S. withdrawal puts less pressure on China to bring its emissions peak earlier, but in recent years China has sought to dominate the clean energy market. "China has been making more efforts to promote green financing and cut coal consumption and emissions due to China's own requirements, not in order to be a more influential global climate leader," said Xu Zhaoyuan of the Development Research Center, a Chinese cabinet think tank. For the full story see http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-china-stature-analy-…