1. Introduction 2. Effective environmental protection in the context of government decentralization 3. Is it fair to treat China as a Christmas tree to hang everybody's complaints? Putting its own energy saving into perspective 4. Assessing China's Carbon intensity pledge for 2020: stringency and credibility issues and their implications 5. In what format and under what time frame would China take on climate commitments? A roadmap to 2050 6. The US proposed carbon tariffs, WTO scrutiny and China's responses 7. Conclusions: China in the transition to a low-carbon economy