China efforts to get successful climate deal driven by urgent need to solve own pollution

FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2015 file photo, a scrap collector gathers materials in a demolished neighborhood near a chimney spewing smoke in Beijing, China. China’s push for a global climate pact is partly because of its own increasingly pressing need to solve its serious environmental problems, observers said Sunday, Dec. 13, as China said the Paris deal shows it is dealing with climate change “as a responsible big country.” (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) (The Associated Press)

Women wear masks for protection against the pollution as they walk along a street on a polluted day in Beijing, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015. China's push for a global climate pact is partly because of its own increasingly pressing need to solve serious environmental problems, observers said Sunday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (The Associated Press)

A woman wears a mask as she rides across a road on a polluted day in Beijing, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015. China's push for a global climate pact is partly because of its own increasingly pressing need to solve serious environmental problems, observers said Sunday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (The Associated Press)

China's push for a global climate pact is partly because of its own increasingly pressing need to solve serious environmental problems. China says the Paris deal shows it is dealing with climate change "as a responsible big country."

China is the world's biggest source of climate-changing gases and was blamed for obstructing the last high-level climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. This time around, it sent strong political signals it wanted a deal in Paris. That conference ended Saturday with the agreement to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100.

Jiang Kejun, senior researcher at China's Energy Research Institute, says Beijing's efforts are a result of its environmental challenges and because the effects of climate change are becoming clearer each year.