China’s Xi set to address COP26 in written statement

Shanghai — Chinese President Xi Jinping will address the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday in the form of a written statement, according to an official schedule.

Xi’s statement will be uploaded to the official conference website after addresses by world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron of France.

According to the list of speakers released by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Xi is the only leader to address the first part of the high-level segment for heads of state and government in a written statement.

China is the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key player at COP26, the latest round of talks aimed at strengthening the fight against global warming, which got under way on Sunday.

However, Xi, who has not left China since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, had not been expected to attend the conference in person.

In updated pledges, China confirmed to the UN last week that it would bring its emissions to a peak before 2030 and cut them to “net zero” by 2060. It also promised to raise total wind and solar power generation capacity to 1,200 gigawatts by 2030 to reach its goals.

However, climate watchers were hoping for new pledges to cap energy consumption and an earlier start to reducing the use of coal, currently scheduled to begin in 2026.

Reuters