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President Xi Jinping has committed China to producing a comprehensive emissions reduction plan, covering for the first time all economic sectors and greenhouse gases, under the UN climate process.
In a speech widely seen as reaffirming the commitment of the world’s biggest polluter to global climate action, Xi said on Wednesday that “no matter how the international situation changes, China will not slow down its efforts to address climate change”.
Speaking at a virtual meeting of global leaders organised by the United Nations and Brazil, Xi announced that China would set new goals to cut emissions by 2035 “covering the entire economy, including all greenhouse gases” ahead of the COP30 summit in November, according to a text published by China’s state news agency.
China’s current target for 2030 – included in its latest Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) released four years ago – only covers carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by the energy sector.
Push for stronger targets
Tackling emissions of all greenhouses gases, beyond CO2, across the whole of the economy is seen as crucial in limiting global warming in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Through its coal mining and farming sectors, for example, China is the world’s largest emitter of methane, which has a shorter lifespan but is much more potent than CO2.
Addressing the media after Wednesday’s summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Xi’s pronouncement on the upcoming Chinese NDC was “extremely important for climate action”.
After most nations missed an initial February deadline to submit their new NDCs, Brazil’s COP30 presidency – which is organising this year’s UN climate summit in November – and UN officials are encouraging countries to produce updated targets by September.
At Wednesday’s meeting, which saw the participation of 17 leaders, Brazil urged larger economies, including the European Union and China, to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, as promised in the Paris Agreement, according to Reuters.
Scientists say the planet is already getting perilously close to heating up by 1.5C above pre-industrial times, which is the lower temperature limit governments agreed to aim for in the Paris pact.
Uncertainty over China’s ambition
While close observers of China’s climate policy welcomed Xi’s comments, they cautioned against assuming that the nation’s emission-cutting plans will be automatically ambitious.
Yao Zhe, global policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, told Climate Home that “a strong NDC from China is not yet guaranteed”.
She added that, while discussions being elevated to the highest political level is “a big step forward”, the level of ambition “remains an open question”, especially given the ongoing tariff war with the United States.
Currently, China – which alone accounts for a third of global emissions – has a goal of peaking CO2 emissions “before 2030” and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.
Since 2020, the country has also pledged to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of GDP – a measure known as carbon intensity – by more than 65% below 2005 levels by 2030.
China is far off track to meet that intensity target under the combined effect of slower economic growth and a faster rise in CO2 emissions, Lauri Myllyvirta, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, wrote in an analysis for Dialogue Earth.
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He told Climate Home that Xi’s statement this week did not answer questions over whether China would put forward an absolute emissions reduction target encompassing everything – or different types of targets for the various sectors and gases.
“Coverage isn’t everything,” he said. “It would be better to have an ambitious target for the main CO2-emitting sectors than to have a weak target covering everything.”
Xi’s dig at Trump policy
But the real significance lies in the level of political buy-in. “The more Xi is personally involved and associated with the targets, the less the government can afford the targets to be disappointing or weak,” said Myllyvirta.
In his speech at the UN meeting, Xi also called on countries to support multilateral climate action and deepen international cooperation to enable the free flow of green technologies, in a thinly veiled attack on US policies under President Donald Trump.
Q&A: China set to stay the course on green policies, despite Trump
His administration has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement and has slapped tariffs of up to 3,521% on solar panels from key producing countries across Asia.
“The green transition is the only way to deal with climate change, and a new engine for economic and social development,” said Xi on Wednesday.
The post Xi commits China to full climate plan but emissions-cutting ambition still unclear appeared first on Climate Home News.
Xi commits China to full climate plan but emissions-cutting ambition still unclear
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect nature after 2030.
However, this did not immediately take the form of a new fund under the COP that biodiverse countries have demanded since 2022, deferring the mechanism’s institutional structure to COP18.
Resource mobilisation discussions at the GBF’s halfway mark were supposed to agree on how to close the “biodiversity finance gap” and to “increase resources from all sources” to “at least” $200bn per year by 2030, as set out in target 19 of the GBF.
The talks were largely dominated by a push, led by the JUSCANZ bloc of developed countries, to “broaden the contributor base”. This could see emerging economies, such as Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and India, being added to the list of countries that pay to protect nature.
Article 20 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states that developed countries “shall provide new and additional financial resources” to developing countries to meet the costs of implementing measures to protect nature.