United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said that democracy is a  poor political system for fighting global warming. Communist China, she says, is  the best model.

China may be the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with  major pollution problems of their own, but the country is “doing it right” when  it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because  they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national  interest.”

Figueres added that the deep partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is “very  detrimental” to passing any sort of legislation to fight global warming. The  Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, can push key policies and reforms  all on its own. The country’s national legislature largely enforces the  decisions made by the party’s Central Committee and other executive offices.

Communism was responsible for the deaths of about 94 million people in China, the  Soviet Union, North Korea, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe in the 20th  Century. China alone was responsible for 65 million of those deaths under  communist rule.

Environmentalists often hail China as a model for fighting global  warming, since they are a “leader” in renewable energy. The country set a  goal of getting 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. In 2012,  China got 9 percent of its power from renewables — the U.S. by contrast got 11  percent in 2012.

However, the country still gets 90 percent of its power from fossil fuels,  mostly from coal. In fact, Chinese coal demand is expected to explode as the  country continues to develop. China has approved 100 million metric tons of new coal  production capacity in 2013 as part of the government’s plan to bring 860  million metric tons of coal production online by 2015.

China has publicly made big efforts to clean up its environment. The  country’s booming industrial apparatus has caused so much pollution that the  skies have been darkened over major cities and the air quality has heavily  deteriorated.

The Wall Street Journal notes that China’s air quality was so bad  that about “1.2 million people died prematurely in China in 2010 as a result of  air pollution” and Chinese government figures show that “lung cancer is now the  leading cause of death from malignant tumors. Many of those dying are  nonsmokers.”

The Soviet bloc’s environmental track record was similarly dismal.

The Communist Party’s National Action Plan spent $275 billion to combat  rampant pollution through 2017, including reducing particulate matter 2.5 levels  in the Beijing region by 25 percent.