China’s winds of change swirl over climate crisis
Green energy push takes center stage as President Trump turns his back on COP30 amid ‘con job’ comments
Climate change illustrates the great divide between China and the United States. In the past, the rest of the world and the European Union bloc of nations relied on Washington to act as a “shock absorber and chief powerbroker at global talks,” Politico reported today.
But those days are gone, swept away by the dark clouds of cynicism and denial by US President Donald Trump. Back in September, he called climate change a “green scam” and a “con job” during an address to the United Nations.
His boycott of this week’s COP30 conference in Brazil will leave China pulling the strings in the background, even though President Xi Jinping will also skip the talks. The world’s second-largest economy is still the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, a UN report revealed.
Yet it is also at the forefront of green energy technologies, fueled by its vast industrial capacity and state-directed policies. “The scale of the renewables’ revolution in China is almost too vast for the human mind to grasp,” The Economist magazine pointed out on the weekend.
“By the end of last year, the country had installed 887 gigawatts of solar-power capacity – close to double Europe’s and America’s combined total,” it reported.
“The 22 million tonnes of steel used to build new wind turbines and solar panels in 2024 would have been enough to build the Golden Gate Bridge [in San Francisco] on every working day of every week that year,” The Economist said.
China is coming up with solutions that are for everyone.
André Corrêa do Lago, Brazilian diplomat in charge of the COP30 conference
Storm of activity:
- China also “generated 1,826 terawatt-hours of wind and solar electricity last year,” the global media group stressed.
- That was five times more than the energy contained in all 600 of China’s nuclear weapons, The Economist added.
Delve deeper: Still, Beijing aims to double down on “new energy” projects mapped out last month by the Communist Party. “Industrial clusters in emerging fields, such as “hydrogen and nuclear fusion power,” are part of the blueprint, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Between the lines: André Corrêa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat in charge of the COP30 conference, highlighted Beijing’s role on the global stage and the shifting winds of geopolitics. “China is coming up with solutions that are for everyone,” he told the media.
Big picture: “Solar panels are cheaper, they’re so competitive [compared with fossil fuel energy] that they are everywhere now. If you’re thinking of climate change, this is good,” Corrêa do Lago said.
Bottom line: Yet amid Trump’s climate change skepticism, the European Union fears it will end up “bearing the brunt of demands and pressures leveled at rich countries,” Politico said, adding that this would be “an awkward role for the EU to take on.”
China Factor comment: Concerns are growing that Brussels lacks the economic and political “heft” to replace Washington. It comes at a time when Beijing is waiting in the wings to fill the “leadership vacuum.” Blue skies have given way to a red horizon.