Commentary Mother Nature, we’re told, is incredibly sick. According to one China expert, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the man to “save the planet.” However, Xi is not an environmentalist; moreover, as this short piece demonstrates, Beijing’s climate-based pledges are heavy on promises, but devoid of genuine progress. In many ways, China’s climate-centered promises contradict reality. Professor Kerry Brown appears to view Xi as an environmentalist, maybe somewhere between Greta Thunberg and Al Gore. Brown is the director of the Lau China Institute and professor of Chinese studies at King’s College, London. According to Brown, China’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2060 is a big deal, worthy of much praise. Moreover, “Xi’s surprise announcement at the UN General Assembly last month that China would no longer build coal-fired power stations abroad,” is a cause for celebration. “Despite all their perpetual arguments in other areas,” Brown wrote, “in this one, …