In a move designed to bolster #Beijing’s climate credentials, Xi Jinping said Tuesday that #China would stop building coal-burning power plants overseas, ending its support for construction projects that rely on the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel. nytimes.com/2021/09/21/cli…
“China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” Mr. Xi said in prerecorded remarks to the United Nations General Assembly.
In response to Mr. Xi’s pledge, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said that “accelerating the global phaseout of coal is the single most important step to keep the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement within reach.”
Mr. Guterres also welcomed a pledge made earlier in the day by President Biden, who said his administration would seek to double aid aimed at helping developing nations address climate change, increasing a pledge he made in April to about $11.4 billion a year by 2024.
What Mr. Xi did not say at the General Assembly was anything about China’s coal plants at home. It is building the world’s largest fleet of coal-fired power plants within its borders, and most of its electricity still comes from coal.
Nor did Mr. Xi make any new announcements about China’s plans to rein in emissions by 2030, beyond repeating his pledge to reach peak emissions before the end of this decade.
Still, Mr. Xi’s announcement, coming just weeks before the United Nations-led climate talks in Glasgow, sharpens the coal dilemma for large, emerging economies like India, South Africa and Turkey, all major consumers of coal.
Jake Schmidt, the senior strategic adviser for international climate issues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a research and advocacy group, called Mr. Xi’s announcement “a really big step.”
“China has been under a lot of pressure,” he said. “If it wants to be a climate leader, it can’t be the leading financier of overseas coal plants.”
Mr. Xi also used his General Assembly speech to reject the American portrayal of his government as authoritarian, predatory and expansionist, asserting that he supports peaceful development for all peoples and ...
... that democracy is “not a special right reserved to an individual country.”
While Mr. Xi’s language was restrained, he also alluded to China’s anger over the Biden administration’s announcement of a new security pact with Australia that will put American nuclear-powered subs in the Australian arsenal.
Without mentioning the United States or Australia by name, Mr. Xi said the world must “reject the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games.”
Disputes between countries, Mr. Xi said, are hardly avoidable and “need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of quality and mutual respect.”
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