During recent meetings between the World Economic Forum and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo, Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasized that the CCP would remain flexible in fulfilling its promise to reduce carbon emissions. Xi’s comments seem to contradict the aggressive claims CCP authorities made during the 2020 and 2021 United Nations Conferences that China would reach its carbon emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, the so-called “double carbon” targets. Xi’s apparent lack of commitment to reducing carbon emissions is consistent with policy changes made by the Chinese regime at the end of 2021. The CCP reduced the restrictions targeting high-energy, high-pollution industries and relaxed the standards used to collect and report compliance data, moves that enable the CCP to dodge criticism if the double carbon targets are not met. During the January 17 World Economic Forum, Xi suggested that China could not achieve its pledged “carbon …