{"id":376997,"date":"2025-05-01T11:05:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T09:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=376997"},"modified":"2025-05-01T11:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T09:05:36","slug":"climate-activists-look-to-china-to-give-them-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=376997","title":{"rendered":"Climate Activists Look to China to Give Them \u201cLeadership\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t forget the money\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The world needs climate change leadership \u2013 it\u2019s time for China to step up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: April 29, 2025 10.26pm AEST
Yixian Sun<\/a>
Associate Professor in International Development, University of Bath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second Trump administration has announced various anti-climate policies under its \u201cAmerica first\u201d strategy. Leaving the Paris agreement<\/a>, kicking off a trade war, shutting down USAid<\/a> and drilling for more oil and gas<\/a> will not only undermine the US\u2019s international reputation but will undermine the global effort to combat climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the US in retreat from climate action and Europe preoccupied by security challenges, new leadership is urgently needed. China may be poised to fill this gap. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more than 60% of the electricity generated in the country still comes from coal, and it remains unclear how fast the government plans to phase out fossil fuels. Meanwhile, some provincial governments are still issuing permits to add new coal-fired power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China was one of the many countries that missed a February deadline for submitting its targets (only 15 countries<\/a> were on time). Until now, Beijing\u2019s strategy has been to \u201cwait and see\u201d<\/a> given the turbulence caused by the new Trump administration. 

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China should also play a major role in reforming the global financial system to make it aligned with the Paris agreement. As a strong supporter of green finance, it can influence upcoming international talks such as the\u00a0Financing for Development<\/a>\u00a0conference in Seville, as well as the UN\u2019s negotiations on\u00a0international tax cooperation<\/a>. As co-chair of the G20\u2019s sustainable finance working group, China also has the opportunity to push for more funding to support net zero.

\u2026Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-world-needs-climate-change-leadership-its-time-for-china-to-step-up-252698<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The activists might have quite a wait for China to provide more money. China is sitting on a stagflation<\/a> and banking<\/a> \/ government liquidity<\/a> crisis which makes the 2007-8 GFC look like a mild hiccup. Toxic debt is weighing down all sectors of the Chinese economy, but every time Beijing tries to pump in a little stimulus, inflation surges and threatens to destroy what is left of their economy. On top of this, Trump\u2019s new tariffs are likely going to crush China\u2019s export sector, one of the few remaining healthy sectors of the Chinese economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure how handing loads of money to foreign activist scientists and poor country tyrants who play the climate pauper game figures in China\u2019s list of priorities, but I\u2019m guessing its not at the top of their list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The activists might have quite a wait for China to provide more money. China is sitting on a\u00a0stagflation\u00a0and\u00a0banking\u00a0\/\u00a0government liquidity\u00a0crisis which makes the 2007-8 GFC look like a mild hiccup. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":377000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818341,691818994,691818056,691819743,691822603,691818154,691820492],"class_list":{"0":"post-376997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-climate-action","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-climate-propaganda","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-net-zero","14":"tag-paris-agreement","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0135631f6-acd4-49fc-b142-2b1eadf97acc.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1A4B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292125,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292125","url_meta":{"origin":376997,"position":0},"title":"The Chinese Communist Party linked to funding for climate activists in the US and UK","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Even though China is the largest single user of fossil fuels on Earth, for some reason\u00a0The Energy Foundation\u00a0China\u00a0\u2014 an NGO dedicated to worrying about carbon emissions \u2014 spent nearly $4 million working on reducing US emissions instead of Sino ones. 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