Injecting momentum into global climate action: China Daily editorial

As the white paper China released on Saturday underscores in its opening sentence, "Earth is the only home of all humanity, and tackling climate change and promoting sustainable development are vital to our survival and future".

Released by the State Council Information Office two days after the opening of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the Brazilian city of Belem, the paper reinforces that the country remains resolutely committed to the global climate cause.

Titled "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality: China's Plans and Solutions", the paper outlines the big progress the country has made so far in promoting its green and low-carbon energy transition and its firm commitment to peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

Thanks to its vigorous measures to substitute renewables for fossil fuels and establish a new energy and power system, China has made notable progress in its green and low-carbon energy transition. The percentage of nonfossil energy consumption increased from 16.0 percent in 2020 to 19.8 percent in 2024, the largest and fastest scaling up of clean energy worldwide. By the end of August 2025, the installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power had surpassed 1,690 gigawatts, triple that of 2020 and accounting for about 80 percent of the country's newly installed power generation capacity since 2020. Meanwhile, it had 112 nuclear power units in operation, under construction, or approved for construction, with a combined installed capacity of 125 GW, ranking first in the world. Its installed capacity of biomass power generation reached 46.88 GW.

The utilization of fossil energy has also become more efficient and efforts to improve the reliability and resilience of the power system are paying off as part of the country's implementation of major pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The achievements China has made should encourage others to pursue their own green transitions, as the global imperative to address climate change cannot be shouldered by any country single-handedly. It is a responsibility that must be borne collectively.

China is willing to share its approaches, actions and experience in this regard to help other countries pursue their green transitions. The cooperation between China and its Belt and Road partners in green infrastructure, energy and transport, which continues to expand, and the financial, technological and capacity-building support it has provided to the best of its ability to countries of the Global South are testament to this.

The year 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Over the past decade, green and low-carbon development has become an unstoppable trend. But only through concrete measures and solid actions can we turn the goals to tackle climate challenges into reality. Reinforcing the country's resolute commitment to action, President Xi Jinping announced China's 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions at the UN Climate Summit on Sept 24, setting the clear target of reducing economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent from peak levels, and striving to do better.

To this end, China is mobilizing both the government and the market, intensifying technological and institutional innovation, and accelerating the green and low-carbon technological revolution, under its "1+N" policy framework, in which the "1" stands for the top-level design and guiding principles and the "N" is the action plans for implementing these overarching directives in key sectors, industries and administrative districts.

In stark contrast to China's contribution to the global climate cause, the United States has been backpedaling on its climate commitments recently. Despite the fact that its total historical greenhouse gas emissions are the largest in the world, and the country's per capita emissions are the highest, the US has taken major steps backward and severely undermined global climate governance efforts by twice withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, having applied to do so for the second time in January this year. The US' retreat from the climate fight is detrimental to collective action, and has the potential to shatter the collective will, as its shortsightedness not only weakens international trust and cooperation but also encourages and emboldens other nations to relax their commitments.

However, at a United Nations Security Council meeting on climate and security on Thursday, US representative Dan Negrea launched a veiled attack on China, accusing China of gaining unfair economic advantages by undercutting its economic competitors, and urged UN member states to look to the US as a model.

It is high time the US stopped its finger-pointing at China, redressed its own mistakes and joined hands with other countries in the world to take urgent and unified action in mitigating the impacts of climate change and ensuring a sustainable future for all.

China is a doer in the global response to climate change. It is recognized by the international community as one of the countries with the firmest will, the strongest actions, and the most remarkable results in fulfilling its emissions reduction commitment.

As the white paper concludes, we all share a common home and a common destiny. Concrete actions, unbreakable solidarity and forward-looking cooperation are nonnegotiable if we are to address the global climate challenges and secure a clean and sustainable future.