China envoy sees global climate fight advancing even without US

BEIJING – China’s top climate envoy said the world’s transition to clean energy will continue, even as the US’ second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement puts unprecedented stress on the fight against global warming.

The

Trump administration’s exit from the UN-led process

has created the “most challenging moment” for negotiations since they started in 1990, Mr Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change, said at the Boao Forum in Hainan. But the multilateral process must continue, he said.

“The global energy transition is irreversible,” Mr Liu said during a panel discussion on March 26. “No one country can stop this process, because the process of global energy transition is driven by the political will of member nations, market forces and technology.”

One area where the loss of a superpower like the US will be felt acutely is in raising funds to help poorer nations prepare for a hotter world.

Developed countries have promised to pony up US$300 billion (S$401.5 billion) a year for the effort, and Mr Liu said it was incumbent on those that remain to meet that goal even without Washington.

China is not considered a developed country in the UN process and has resisted calls that it contribute to the fund.

Plunging costs

In China,

the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases

, plunging costs of renewable energy have sparked a boom in installations that will probably mean the nation peaks emissions before its target of 2030, said Dr Zhu Min, a former deputy governor at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

“The carbon peak will be achieved two to three years ahead of schedule, in 2027 or 2028, because the cost of renewable energy is only half of the cost of coal,” said Dr Zhu, now a vice-chairman at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges. 

The breakneck expansion of clean energy in China has raised questions over whether too much intermittent wind and solar power is straining the grid and needs to be slowed down.

Mr Song Hailiang, chairman of China Energy Engineering, said the energy transition needs to be more systematic and integrated, as opposed to focusing on individual sectors to drive decarbonisation.

Grid companies are pouring record amounts of money into strengthening their infrastructure to catch up with renewables, and pushed back against the idea that they are a choke point for continued additions.

China absorbed about 96 per cent of wind and solar generation in 2024, one of the highest rates globally, said Mr Xin Baoan, former chairman of State Grid Corp of China, which distributes power to more than 80 per cent of the country. 

“Our new energy consumption now has a strong power grid and a huge market for electricity demand,” said Mr Xin, who is currently chairman of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organisation. 

Carbon market

Still, the cost of building energy storage and other infrastructure needed to help renewables match the around-the-clock performance of fossil fuels is undoubtedly slowing the energy transition, said Dr Zhou Xiaochuan, a former PBOC governor. 

Raising the cost of emitting carbon dioxide would help solve this by creating more incentive to invest in clean infrastructure, he said.

China’s own national carbon market, which has had relatively low prices and anaemic trading since launching in 2021, needs more stringent rules to support the energy transition, he said.

“One major problem is that the free carbon emission quota is too loose,” he said. “This has prevented the market from playing a good role.”

On the wire

China ramped up debt issuance in the first quarter of 2025, a move that signals both the authorities’ priority of stimulating growth and efforts to prevent a repeat of an overheated bond market.

It is not just America and Europe that fear the competitive threat from Chinese clean technology. China itself is scared.

Tianqi Lithium warned that volatility in lithium product prices and growing geopolitical risks may cloud its outlook, as it swung to its first full-year loss since 2020 amid a prolonged battery-metal rout.

ENN Energy Holdings received a take-private offer from its biggest shareholder that values the Chinese gas distributor at about HK$90.5 billion (S$15.5 billion).

Aluminum Corp of China, the country’s largest state-owned producer, posted a jump in full-year profit and said it aimed to secure more bauxite for its smelters. BLOOMBERG