I would say the difference is that China's leadership knows it's gone off the rails, whereas the US's leadership is mostly still in complete denial. China's gr

I would say the difference is that China's leadership knows it's gone off the rails, whereas the US's leadership is mostly still in complete denial. China's growth has forced them to acknowledge that their industrial expansion is not sustainable. The US leadership, meanwhile, has not had the necessary wake-up call. China's authoritarian system of government means they can be much more quick and heavy-handed about changing direction without as much fear of making unpopular decisions, and they're already doing that. The US is hampered by the fact that its politicians are beholden to constituencies and lobbyists. China seems to see green energy as being a business opportunity — these days, almost everyone except those with vested interest in the status quo do — and is making enormous investments. This, unfortunately, is probably the key to solving global warming: Make solving it financially desirable, and people, governments and companies will be incentivized by greed alone. It's not exactly a novel approach, but we seem to have finally reached a tipping point where "green" no longer has the stigma of feeble, touchy-feely liberal environmentalism, which makes all the difference.