Xi's Green Teams Fight for the Environment

Chinese President Xi Jinping was an unexpected savior of the historic Paris Climate Summit last December. He offered far-reaching Chinese commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and also provided necessary political momentum to finalize the difficult international negotiations.

By Deborah Lehr as featured on Huffpost

Chinese President Xi Jinping was an unexpected savior of the historic Paris Climate Summit last December. He offered far-reaching Chinese commitments to reduce carbon emissions, and also provided necessary political momentum to finalize the difficult international negotiations.

Now Xi has turned his attention to the even more difficult task of delivering on those commitments at home. To do so, he's taking a page from his anti-corruption campaign: creating "Green Teams" or environmental experts tasked with conducting random inspections across China to ensure that provincial and municipal leaders are actually implementing his policies.