Why China Isn’t Filling Leadership Void After US Climate Retreat
The world’s top emitter is focusing on issues that benefit Beijing while helping steer a global green agenda.
Participants line up for souvenirs at the China Pavilion during the COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
Photographer: Claudia Martini/Xinhua/Getty Images
In the corridors of the United Nations climate summit in Brazil, there had been hopes that China — a vocal advocate of emissions reduction and the powerhouse of clean energy technology — would act as a like-for-like replacement for lost US leadership under President Donald Trump. In the final moments of the two-week COP30 talks, China hasn’t stepped into that role.
Despite China’s splashy presence in the Amazonian city of Belém, where its bustling national pavilion has drawn major crowds, and its efforts to shape the summit’s agenda in advance, there’s little evidence Beijing’s overall approach has shifted into leadership mode. Instead, Chinese diplomats have used the global climate negotiations to oppose trade barriers that threaten the country’s enormous exports of the solar, wind and battery technology. Representatives from Asia’s top economy declined to step forward with an investment in a flagship rainforest conservation fund, limiting Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s prospects of raising an initially planned $25 billion.