“China is quietly saving the world from climate change,” declared liberal economics blogger Noah Smith.

“The United States — the country that defeated the Axis, fed the world with the Green Revolution, and did so much to promote global growth and technological progress over the last century — has utterly dropped the ball on the biggest environmental challenge of our age,” Smith lamented. “Instead, the threat will be met and defeated by China, and — more than any other single individual — by Xi Jinping himself. That’s no small accomplishment.”