Updated at 2139 EAT on Monday 17th November 2025
On the opening day at COP30, the United Nations’ annual climate summit, the scene was emblematic of a shifting order. With the United States absent, all eyes were on China.
A crowd had gathered around a glossy Chinese Pavilion, its two upright flags flanking a stage and podium with ceremonial precision. Behind the podium stood a member of China’s delegation, addressing an audience larger than any other at the conference while ticking through images on a screen: Rural streets glowed beneath solar lamps; a smiling driver posed beside a gleaming electric bus; a slide promoted the Vientiane Saysettha Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone, a China-Laos initiative bringing electric transportation and solar power to one of Southeast Asia’s poorest capitals.
In 2024, China accounted for about 40 percent of global electric vehicle exports, and it still controls the overwhelming bulk of solar manufacturing steps. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse told Sierra, “As we [arrived to COP30], in the wee hours of this morning, I drove by a number of Chinese EV manufacturers and dealerships. They are here, they are popular, they’re inexpensive.”
Whitehouse chose to attend COP30 in response to the Trump administration’s refusal to send a delegation. “There will be lasting economic damage to the United States from failing to keep up with China in the race to succeed in the clean energy future that is inevitable,” he said. Still, Whitehouse asserted, the Trump administration does not represent the American public on climate issues. “Who they represent is the fossil fuel industry and most importantly, the big fossil fuel donors who have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s political campaign. You are seeing [that influence] in action.”
China invested around $625 billion in clean energy in 2024—a third of the global total—and reached its 2030 renewable-capacity target six years early.Abroad, its state banks and construction firms have financed or built solar mini-grids, EV fleets, and battery plants across dozens of developing countries, sometimes within months. That speed contrasts sharply with Western or multilateral projects that can take years to clear approvals. Beijing presents its global finance as South-South cooperation—a way of collaborating with countries in the Global South to pool resources and strategies through aid and other initiatives.
But for all the promotion of itself as a green leader, China remains one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, responsible for roughly a third of global fossil CO₂ in 2024 (though its emissions have peaked in the last 18 months, according to Carbon Brief), and its reliance on coal-fired power has continued to surge, offsetting emissions reductions gains. President Xi Jinping’s “no new coal abroad” pledgehas produced real, if uneven, results since he introduced it four years ago. China has canceled enough projects to book a reduction of 6.1 billion metric tons of CO₂ emissions, more than the United States’ total annual emissions in 2024,, though operation coal projects funded by China have grown in capacity by 4.1GW.
“There is no doubt that China has driven down the cost of renewables, which everyone is benefiting from—and that’s a huge plus to the world overall,” said Jonathan Beynon, senior policy associate on climate finance at the Center for Global Development. “But it is not providing as much climate finance as it should, and a lot of what it does provide is on very nonconcessional terms, which is a major problem.”
“I get the impression that China is willing and able to step up and is looking to fill the gaps left by others,” he added, an indirect nod to the vacuum in the market left by the US.
HICGI News Agency 