UNITED NATIONS — Barely a month ago, in a landmark speech to the Communist Party congress, President Xi Jinping of China promised that his country would take a “driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change.”

But can China really be in the “driving seat” when it is burning so much coal that its carbon emissions are forecast to rise this year?

It may depend on how the country manages a climate agenda laden with contradictions.

For one thing, China, the world’s most populous country and the largest carbon polluter, is well on track to meet the commitments it made under the Paris climate accord — the global agreement designed to curb the worst effects of climate change — which the United States has said it is leaving.