Climate change is a wake-up call, says Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called climate change a ‘wake-up call … to mankind’ in a speech delivered less than a week before the COP26 talks begin in Glasgow.

There is some expectation of a virtual leaders’ meeting ­between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden over the next fortnight. Picture: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called climate change a “wake-up call … to mankind” in a speech ­delivered less than a week before the COP26 talks begin in Glasgow.

The declaration came as China’s delegation for the high- stakes summit received final ­instructions before flying to London on Tuesday and as Beijing’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, called the policy to achieve a carbon peak a “major strategic ­decision”.

“Climate change is a wake-up call from nature to mankind,” Mr Xi said on Monday in a speech marking 50 years since China joined the UN.

Beijing is attempting to shore up the climate change credentials of its supreme leader ahead of the summit at which the world’s biggest emitter is under pressure to increase the size and hasten the pace of its carbon cuts.

China’s leader will not physically attend the UN-backed talks in Glasgow, which run for a fortnight from Sunday.

Mr Xi will be represented by China’s special climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, and Ecology and Environment Vice-Minister Zhao Yingmin.

The Chinese delegation will meet in London over the coming days with counterparts from ­Europe and the US – including US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry – before the Glasgow talks begin.

Climate policy experts say those talks are the most likely chance of a breakthrough at the summit. If successful – which many doubt they will be – they may be followed by a virtual leaders’ meeting ­between Mr Xi and Mr Biden.

Li Shuo, a Beijing-based ­climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace East Asia, said the level of China’s ambition for the talks was still unclear and would likely be determined by a “last- minute decision” by Mr Xi.

Beijing released further details at the weekend of its plan to reduce carbon after peaking in 2030.

Negotiators from the US and Europe are trying to get China to bring its targets forward.

“Introducing stronger targets such as peaking before 2025 is key,” Mr Li said.

In his speech to the UN on Monday, Mr Xi spoke in broadbrush terms about what needed to be done.

“Countries in the world should take practical actions to maintain safe boundaries for nature, ­encourage green recovery, green production, and green consumption, promote the formation of a civilised and healthy lifestyle, form a pattern of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and make a good ecological environment an inexhaustible source of sustainable development,” he said.

Those comments followed ­remarks by Mr Xi last week during an inspection tour of Yellow River in which he, for the first time, linked climate change with ­national security.

Without China’s co-operation, scientists believe that limiting ­global warming to 1.5C – beyond which climate change is thought to become increasingly dangerous – is extremely unlikely.

Many are sceptical about ­Beijing’s claims of climate leadership. China accounts for 28 per cent of global emissions and has continued to build new coal-fired power stations despite Mr Xi’s rhetoric.

Some fear the Chinese delegation might reprise the blocking role they employed at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.

Within China, Mr Xi’s environmental credentials are being loudly championed.

A report by China’s official newsagency, Xinhua, over the weekend lauded Mr Xi’s role at the previous major UN-backed climate talks in Paris in 2015.

“Had (there) not been President Xi Jinping’s initiative, we would not have the Paris climate change agreement even now,” former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was quoted as telling Xinhua in an interview.

“The world was saved,” Mr Ban was quoted as saying.