China has reaffirmed its schedule to launch the world’s largest “cap-and-trade” market for carbon emission permits in 2017. This national carbon market is expected to lower the cost of emission reduction, as China strives to fulfill its Paris pledge of peaking carbon emission by 2030.

Like the United States, China’s falling emissions have been aided by renewable energy expansions, but are more a result of economic forces that would have existed in the absence of government effort. Germany on the other hand has made strong policy decisions that have transformed the shape of its energy infrastructure, rather than letting its energy infrastructure transform the shape of its policy. If China wishes to lead the world to two degrees, it should follow Germany’s example, not the U.S.’s.

The path of green and low-carbon development outlined in the Paris Agreement fits beautifully with China’s strategy to develop an ecological civilization. Hard-won and embraced by virtually every country, its spirit stands in stark contrast to the new US president’s lack of forward thinking.

With the US now unwilling to pay the price of global leadership, other countries will seize both the opportunities and the responsibility to make the Paris accord work.

As the president pushes the private sector to assume more of the federal government’s role in environmental protection, developing standards and related technology updating could mean new cooperation areas for business and local governments in China and the US. Green-friendly China could also become a haven for like-minded entrepreneurs in the US.

US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will no longer participate in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the landmark United Nations treaty that many of us worked so hard to achieve. Trump is making a mistake that will have grave repercussions for his own country, and for the world.

Like the United Nations and many national governments around the world, the Chinese government has sought to use education as an important means of fostering environmental stewardship and ecological sustainability. Yet, while the Ministry of Education guidelines and their plans for implementation look great on paper, they encounter significant obstacles in China’s exam-focused schools.

With commitments to clean energy and combatting climate change wavering under the new US administration, leadership in renewable energy is quietly shifting away from the United States across the Pacific, where China is rapidly building its dominance.

Now is the time, especially given the Trump Administration’s stance on environment, for China to assume the leadership role with more assertiveness and confidence, be more proactive in working with other nations, and coordinate global actions to curb pollution.

While U.S. President Donald Trump was talking about investing more in coal as a source of energy, China has just announced that it will scrap 85 coal power plants under construction and invest 2.5 trillion yuan ($361 billion) in green energy, largely in response to the public outcry about smog in northern China. China’s move in this direction will further strengthen China’s leadership position in green energy.