Environment Archives - Friends of Socialist China

Red goes green: witnessing the truth of China’s ‘ecological civilisation’

The following article by Morning Star editor Ben Chacko describes the reality of China’s pursuit of ecological civilisation, witnessed during a recent trip to the southwestern province of Yunnan, and contrasts it with the West’s hypocrisy: talking up the need for climate mitigation and adaptation whilst predictably sacrificing environmental regulation for economic growth.

Ben notes that China’s environmental record is contested: once the subject of widespread criticism for the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions connected with its rapid industrialisation, it has over the last 15 years made sustainability a central goal, lowering growth targets and embedding ecological protection in its five-year plans. The slogan “clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of silver and gold” is now a guiding principle across the country.

Ben writes that, at Erhai Lake in Dali, a major clean-up project begun in 2018 has restored biodiversity and water quality through state-led coordination — something, he argues, that would be impossible under Britain’s privatised water system. Similarly, conservation initiatives like the Yangtze Finless Porpoise Research Centre and a 10-year fishing ban have reversed biodiversity decline along China’s largest river.

The article also highlights the integration of ecological awareness with social policy: cooperatives in Yunnan’s nut industry and flower farming partnerships with Shanghai institutions have increased incomes while protecting local ecosystems.

Ben contrasts China’s progress — cleaner cities, renewable energy, efficient public transport, flourishing greenery — with Britain’s deterioration in infrastructure and environment. His conclusion is that China’s ecological civilisation is not mere rhetoric but a genuine effort to demonstrate that economic development and environmental protection can advance together in a rational, publicly coordinated economy.

This article was first published in the Morning Star on 9 October 2025.

Sustainable development is one of the world’s biggest challenges — can we raise living standards while protecting the environment and reducing emissions?

In Britain as in the United States, the answer increasingly appears to be “no” — with environmental regulation sacrificed in the name of growth.

China’s environmental record is contested: some paint it as a global villain, with the world’s highest carbon emissions (a point often used on the right to argue that there is no point in Western countries addressing climate change) while others point to its world-leader status in developing green technology including wind and solar power, electric vehicles and emission-reducing high-speed rail as a form of mass transit.

A common accusation after China began “reform and opening up” in 1978 was that the country pursued industrialisation and urbanisation without regard for nature, causing serious environmental degradation and pollution.

The Xi Jinping governments from 2011 announced a changed approach, lowering growth targets and shifting the emphasis of five-year plans to sustainability, which involved social factors (strengthening the welfare state, reducing inequality and eliminating absolute poverty) but also a greater focus on protecting the environment.

This concept took formal shape with 2018’s announcement that China was building an “ecological civilisation” and Xi’s declaration that “clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of silver and gold” was something we saw posted on billboards and heard on the lips of local leaders throughout the Morning Star’s trip to the country’s south-western Yunnan province this month.

Is it rhetoric or is it real? Our experience suggested China continues to face huge challenges, but is — as in most policy fields — more innovative and more ambitious than Western governments.

China and climate – the question of leadership

The following is an expanded version of a talk given by London-based climate activist Paul Atkin at the Socialist China Conference 2025 on the subject of China’s leadership role in fighting climate breakdown.

The piece argues that climate change is no longer a distant eventuality but a present-day crisis. Drawing on IPCC science, Paul stresses we are already on a dangerous trajectory and in a decisive decade. China is directly suffering climate impacts including flooding, drought, heat deaths and crop yield loss, and as such has a compelling reason to lead on mitigation and adaptation.

China frames its approach to environmental protection through the lens of ecological civilisation and the Two Mountains proposition popularised by Xi Jinping – that green mountains with clear water are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver. China’s political system, Paul contends, allows a centralised, state-driven push for renewable energy and clean infrastructure at scales and speeds that the capitalist world cannot easily emulate.

The country is now a global powerhouse in solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles, and as a result its domestic emissions may already have peaked. China’s solar and wind installation rates are staggering: “Last year China installed as much renewable power in one year as the US has in its entire history, and this will accelerate.”

Abandoning overseas coal investments, China is helping developing countries leapfrog fossil dependency via exports of solar panels and other clean energy hardware.In contrast, Trump “is locking the US into a suicidal entrenchment in increasingly outmoded fossil fuel technology”.

The article concludes that China is emerging as the de facto climate leader, charting an urgently-needed path of sustainable development. The choice for the rest of the world is whether to hitch itself to the US’s fossil-fuel wagon or align with a cleaner, renewable-based future enabled in large part by China’s commitment, investment and innovation.

This article first appeared on Paul Atkin’s blog, Urban Ramblings. Below the text we embed the video of the speech.

I edit the Greener Jobs Alliance Newsletter and convene the National Education Union Climate Change Network, but am speaking in a personal capacity because both organisations contain a range of views about China and its role in climate change. These are mine.

Marx used to quote Hegel’s dictum that “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk” to note that people by and large learn from events only after they have happened. In the case of the climate crisis, dusk is falling already and we know what is happening.

IPCC Reports are very clear about the increase in greenhouse gases, the increase in global temperatures that arise from that, and the impacts are increasingly documented, as well as reported as they happen. We are experiencing it. It’s not a single cataclysm that may or may not happen some time in the future. It is happening now. Slowly from the point of view of political/electoral cycles, but with terrifying rapidity in geological terms; such that we are in a crucial decade in the century that will make or break human civilization.

China’s progress proves socialism is the only viable framework for saving the planet

The following is the text of a presentation given by Carlos Martinez to the Fourth World Congress on Marxism, which took place on 11-12 October 2025 at Peking University (PKU), China, organised by PKU’s School of Marxism.

The presentation gives an overview of the progress made by China in recent years with regard to clean energy, and poses the question: why is it China, rather than the advanced capitalist countries, that has emerged as the world’s only ‘green superpower’? Carlos argues that the fundamental reason lies in China’s economy being “structured in such a way that political and economic priorities are determined not by capital’s drive for constant expansion but by the needs and aspirations of the people.”

On the other hand, “the balance of power in capitalist countries is such that even relatively progressive governments find it very difficult to prioritise long-term needs of the population over short-term interests of capital.”

Carlos notes that, as a result of its systematic investment in renewable energy, electric vehicles, transmission systems, batteries and more, China has become the first country to meaningfully break the link between economic development and greenhouse gas emissions. “While governments in the West justify inaction on climate on the basis that it would harm economic growth, China is the first country to make the green transition a powerful driver of economic growth, thereby addressing both the immediate needs of the Chinese people for modernisation and the long-term needs of humanity for a habitable planet.”

China’s progress is set to have a profound global impact. As a result of Chinese innovations and economies of scales, there has been a global reduction in costs, such that for much of the world, solar and wind power are now more cost effective than fossil fuels.

And for those of us in the advanced capitalist countries, where political power is dominated by a decaying bourgeoisie, China’s example can be used to help create mass pressure to stop our governments and ruling classes from destroying the planet, and to encourage sensible cooperation with China on environmental issues.

The Congress featured an impressive array of Marxist academics and authors, including Gong Qihuang, President of Peking University; Li Yi, Vice President of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Governance); John Bellamy Foster, Editor-in-Chief of Monthly Review; Cheng Enfu, Professor, School of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Radhika Desai, Professor, University of Manitoba; Roland Boer, Professor, Renmin University of China; Pham Van Duc, Professor, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences; and Gabriel Rockhill, Professor, Villanova University. The Congress has been reported on CGTN, including brief video interviews with Carlos Martinez and Radhika Desai.

We will never again seek economic growth at the cost of the environment. (Xi Jinping)

There is a prevailing prejudice in the West that China is a climate criminal – the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and a country that continues to build coal-fired power stations. This connects to a wider perception of socialist governance as being antithetical to environmental protection.

And yet China’s remarkable progress over the last two decades in tackling pollution, protecting biodiversity and developing clean energy is causing this narrative to fall apart.

China has recently passed a historic milestone in its energy transition: cumulative installed solar capacity has exceeded 1 terawatt, representing 45 percent of the global total and far outstripping the United States and European Union.

At the United Nations climate summit in September, President Xi Jinping announced that China was committing to cut carbon dioxide and other pollution by at least 7 to 10 percent by 2035 – the first time that China has set a concrete target for reducing emissions as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.

Credible evidence suggests that China’s greenhouse gas emissions have already peaked, five years earlier than promised.

Since 2013, China’s solar installed capacity has increased by a factor of 180, while wind power capacity has grown sixfold.

China dominates the global green technology supply chain, producing the overwhelming majority of solar modules, wafers, and battery components.

Decarbonising the planet: China leads the way out of the climate crisis

In the video below, KJ Noh interviews Carlos Martinez about China’s role in humanity’s common struggle against climate breakdown. In particular, the two discuss the new comprehensive review by global energy think tank Ember of China’s clean energy progress and its implications for the rest of the world.

KJ and Carlos go into some depth regarding China’s commitment to renewable energy and environmental protection, and the reason China has emerged as the undisputed global leader in clean technology while the US administration is doubling down on fossil fuel and the military-industrial complex.

The two discuss the geopolitics of the climate crisis, concluding that, for much of the US ruling class, a strategy of suppressing China’s rise is a significantly higher priority than saving the planet; “better dead than red” for the 21st century. KJ and Carlos also cover the global significance of China’s innovation, investment and economies of scale, noting that thanks to China’s efforts, there’s been a dramatic cost reduction in green tech around the world, allowing many countries of the Global South to leapfrog fossil fuel-based development.

The interview was originally recorded and broadcast on BreakThrough News on 30 September 2025.

Xi Jinping at the UN Climate Summit: Green and low-carbon transition is the trend of the time

In video remarks to the United Nations Climate Summit on 24 September 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a renewed global commitment to climate action. He stressed that green and low-carbon transition is the “trend of our time”, urging countries not to be swayed by the backsliding of “some country” (presumably referring to the United States) and to deliver ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Xi outlined three key principles. First, confidence: the world must stay resolute and consistent in its climate efforts. Second, responsibility: fairness requires that developed nations lead in emissions cuts while providing financial and technological support to developing countries, respecting their right to development. Third, cooperation: countries should strengthen coordination in green technology and industry, ensure open trade in green products, and share the benefits of sustainable growth worldwide.

Announcing China’s new NDCs, Xi pledged that by 2035 China will: reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10 percent from peak levels; raise non-fossil fuels to over 30 percent of energy consumption; expand wind and solar capacity to 3,600 GW (six times 2020 levels); increase forest stock to 24 billion cubic meters; make new energy vehicles dominant in new sales; extend its carbon trading market; and basically establish a climate-adaptive society. He concluded:

Great visions require concrete actions. Climate response is an urgent yet long-term task. Let’s all step up our actions to realize the beautiful vision of harmony between man and nature, and preserve planet Earth—the place we call home.

In a blog post, veteran educator and activist Mike Klonsky contrasted President Xi’s vision with Donald Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly – “a long and humiliating rant, filled with personal grievances and attacks on the UN, European leaders, migration policies, and clean energy.” Mike observes that Trump “spent about a quarter of his speech undermining UN-led efforts to address climate change and ridiculing renewable energy policies”. Meanwhile, “China is quietly rewriting the global energy script. The numbers aren’t just staggering—they’re humiliating for any nation like the US, still tethered to fossil-fuelled delusions”.

A Morning Star report of 25 September quotes UN climate chief Simon Stiell saying that plan announced by President Xi “is a clear signal that the future global economy will run on clean energy.”

In a separate opinion piece for the Morning Star on 25 September, London-based climate activist Paul Atkin describes the extraordinary progress China is making in relation to green energy:

• China has 17.2 per cent of the world’s people but half of the world’s solar, wind power and EVs.
• Last year, China installed as much renewable power as the US has in its entire history.
• Three out of four offshore wind turbines in 2025 are being installed in China.
• This April, China installed solar power at a rate equivalent to a new power station every eight minutes.
• Enormous solar and wind farms are being built. One of these, in Tibet, is the size of Chicago.

Paul points to the urgent necessity of working closely with China in pursuit of a sustainable future: “As the climate crisis deepens, the cost of being shackled to the US and its cold war stance against China will become more and more apparent — a point we have to make in and through the unions, Labour, the Greens and Your Party.”

Paul is among the speakers at the Socialist China Conference on Saturday 27 September.

We republish below President Xi’s speech at the UN Climate Summit, followed by the text of Paul Atkin’s article.

Honoring Commitments with Concrete Actions and Jointly Writing a New Chapter in Global Climate Governance

Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China
At the United Nations Climate Summit
September 24, 2025

Your Excellency Secretary General António Guterres,

Your Excellency President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

Colleagues,

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, a pivotal year for countries to submit their new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Global climate governance is entering a key stage.

I wish to share with you three points.

First, we must firm up confidence. Green and low-carbon transition is the trend of our time. While some country is acting against it, the international community should stay focused on the right direction, remain unwavering in confidence, unremitting in actions and unrelenting in intensity, and push for formulation and delivery on NDCs, with a view to providing more positive energy to the cooperation on global climate governance.

Second, we must live up to responsibilities. In the course of global green transition, fairness and equity should be upheld and the right to development of developing countries fully respected. The transition should serve to narrow rather than widen the North-South gap. Countries need to honor the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, whereby developed countries should take the lead in fulfilling emission reduction obligations and provide more financial and technological support to developing countries.

Third, we must deepen cooperation. The world now faces a huge demand for green development. It is important that countries strengthen international coordination in green technologies and industries to address the shortfall in green production capacity and ensure free flow of quality green products globally, so that the benefits of green development can reach all corners of the world.

Colleagues,

Let me take this opportunity to announce China’s new NDCs as follows: China will, by 2035, reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% from peak levels, striving to do better; increase the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to over 30%; expand the installed capacity of wind and solar power to over six times the 2020 levels, striving to bring the total to 3,600 gigawatts; scale up the total forest stock volume to over 24 billion cubic meters; make new energy vehicles the mainstream in the sales of new vehicles; expand the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market to cover major high-emission sectors; and basically establish a climate adaptive society.

These targets represent China’s best efforts based on the requirements of the Paris Agreement. Meeting these targets requires both painstaking efforts by China itself and a supportive and open international environment. We have the resolve and confidence to deliver on our commitments.

Colleagues,

Great visions require concrete actions. Climate response is an urgent yet long-term task. Let’s all step up our actions to realize the beautiful vision of harmony between man and nature, and preserve planet Earth—the place we call home.

Thank you.

Time to follow China’s climate leadership

The climate crisis is happening now. We are in a crucial decade in the century that will make or break human civilisation.

It will not follow a path of Fabian gradualism. In physics as in politics, long periods of apparent stasis, in which forces build, hit a tipping point, setting off sudden, dramatic shifts; unimaginable until they happen, but making the previous period unimaginable once they have.

China aims to build a moderately prosperous socialist society as an ecological civilisation, expressed in the “Two Mountains” proposition — that green mountains with clear water are as valuable as mountains of gold.

So, as China grows, it will be green; not socialism with a green component, but green socialism. As one Canadian commentator put it: “China is pushing power sector transformation through central planning. It can build clean infrastructure quickly.”

So, if you have socialist planning, you can put social and ecological priorities in command in a way that the West can’t.

“China sees the old fossil fuel growth model as … unable to sustain long-term prosperity.”

If the socialism that’s built isn’t green, it can’t survive. Investment in solar power, electric vehicles, batteries, and wind power is now the core driver of China’s economy.

• China has 17.2 per cent of the world’s people but half of the world’s solar, wind power and EVs.
• Last year, China installed as much renewable power as the US has in its entire history.
• Three out of four offshore wind turbines in 2025 are being installed in China.
• This April, China installed solar power at a rate equivalent to a new power station every eight minutes.
• Enormous solar and wind farms are being built. One of these, in Tibet, is the size of Chicago.

China now has 57 per cent of its electricity generated by renewables, compared to 50.8 per cent for Britain. China’s domestic emissions are peaking, even as demand for energy increases. Emissions were down 1.6 per cent, and coal consumption dropped by 2.6 per cent, in the first half of this year.

The International Energy Agency expects China to hit peak oil in 2027. As China had driven two-thirds of global oil demand growth from 2013 to 2023, it is set to plateau then drop before 2030.

This makes investment in fossil fuel exploration or power plants increasingly risky. Banks that have traditionally put huge resources into them are beginning to get cold feet. This is putting the US fossil fuel drive at odds with markets. China’s decision to stop coal investment overseas has been pivotal.

• China’s clean energy exports in 2024 shaved 1 per cent off global emissions outside of China.
• Three-quarters of global fossil fuel demand is now in nations where this has already peaked.
• More than 60 per cent of emerging and developing economies like Brazil and Vietnam are leapfrogging the US and Europe in clean electrification.
• Pakistan doubled its previous grid capacity with new rooftop solar last year.
• Solar panel exports from China to Africa are up 60 per cent this year.

Three factors underlie this.

Physics: fossil fuels are wasteful. Two-thirds of their energy is lost to heat or inefficiency. Solar, electric motors, and heat pumps are two to four times as efficient.

Economics: as fossil fuel reserves deplete, they become more expensive to access. The more electric technology is manufactured, the cheaper and better it becomes.

Geopolitics: the old energy system left three-quarters of humanity dependent on expensive, imported fuels. Electric technologies unlock local resources.

So, the Western model of development is outmoded, and the future does not, and cannot, look like the US. China is not following the US in a race to the bottom. Ma Zhaoxu, China’s vice-foreign minister, says: “Regardless of how the international situation evolves, China’s proactive actions to address climate change will not slow down.”

In rolling back Joe Biden’s attempt to suck green investment into the US, Donald Trump has abandoned the future.

This doesn’t simply involve domestic economic self-sabotage, with more expensive fossil fuel plants pushing up bills, offshore wind farms cancelled, imperilling supply in regions like New England, but also a wrecking ball taken to disaster emergency relief and scientific research monitoring the climate.

As the world’s leading petrostate, US policy now actively suppresses the truth about climate change. Their aim is to lock as much of the world as possible into fossil fuel bondage.

Success for the US would lock the world, and the US itself, into climate collapse. But, while the US still makes some of the weather — literally in this case — it’s no longer able to determine the direction of the world.

As climate scientist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben puts it in his article Here Comes the Sun: “Big Oil spent more money on last year’s election cycle in my country than they’ve ever done before. And it’s why they’re now being rewarded with a whole variety of measures designed to slow this transition down, which may succeed.

“I mean, it’s possible that 20 years from now, the US will be a kind of museum of internal combustion that other people will visit to see what the olden days were like. But it’s not going to slow the rest of the world down much, I don’t think.”

There is a tension in the British government, with its attempt to dodge tariffs by bending the knee and committing to an annual £77 billion black hole in “defence” spending, and the stated direction of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to make Britain an “electrostate.” This involves some co-operation with China, but would require more investment than the military spend will allow.

Reform UK and the Conservative Party aim at consolidating energy dependence on the US, no matter how ruinous the cost. As the climate crisis deepens, the cost of being shackled to the US and its cold war stance against China will become more and more apparent — a point we have to make in and through the unions, Labour, the Greens and Your Party.

What is behind China’s successful leadership in tackling the climate crisis?

Ganesh Tailor, writing in People’s Voice, newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada, argues that China’s success in tackling the climate crisis stems from its socialist system and long-term planning:

China’s Five-Year Plans allow for the massive, state-led mobilisation of resources with long-term sustainable goals in mind. These initiatives, necessary for the common good, have led to the PRC’s rise as the world leader in solar panel production and installation and its dominance in wind and hydroelectric projects, along with rapid expansions in electric vehicles and high-speed rail.

Ganesh observes that Chinese innovations around sustainable development are having a global impact, particularly in the Global South:

Through the Belt-and-Road Initiative, Global South countries have received loans to build green infrastructure and develop their sovereign economies without having to concede to structural adjustment or austerity programs, as infamously required by the IMF and World Bank. Instead, China has worked with Pakistan and Zambia to build solar farms, Ethiopia and South Africa to build wind turbines, and Laos and Ecuador to build hydroelectric dams – to name only a few. These projects enable partner countries to diversify their energy sources, especially away from fossil fuels, and strengthen their sovereignty through economic growth and stability.

While the US imposes a criminal blockade on Cuba, “China has donated solar farms, along with at least 70 tons of power generator parts and accessories to aid in Cuba’s energy grid’s robustness. China has additionally provided significant financing for solar infrastructure, with projections for solar powering two-thirds of present-day Cuban demand by 2028.” The article continues:

A stabilized power grid directly translates to a better quality of life for everyday Cubans. Solar farms reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts and free up foreign currency, otherwise spent on oil, to be spent on crucial resources like food and medicine imports. Partnership with the PRC in energy diversification away from imperialist-led fossil fuel hegemony bolsters Cuba’s ability to serve its people and continue defending its hard-fought revolution.

Ganesh concludes that capitalism cannot resolve the climate crisis, as profit-driven systems inherently obstruct real solutions. China’s achievements demonstrate that socialism offers the only viable path to a collective, internationalist, and sustainable future.

We are living through the prime existential threat facing life on this planet. The climate crisis is an undeniable reality born from the inherent contradictions of capitalism. The profit motive and its ecological impacts in development are increasingly borne by the planet and its peoples. We are continually told of supposed “solutions” that are, in reality, nothing more than greenwashing and toothless accords meant to at best manage decline, and at worst open new carbon markets.

Despite the ruthless propaganda emanating from the worst offenders in Washington and Ottawa, the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of the Communist Party, is demonstrating the superiority of centralized and long-term economic planning to tackle this global challenge.

The Yangtze River Protection Law as a model of ecological governance

The Yangtze River Protection Law (YPL), enacted on March 1, 2021, is China’s first comprehensive river-specific legislation and a landmark in the country’s environmental governance.

The following article, submitted by İbrahim Can Eraslan, describes how, rooted in the concept of ecological civilisation and the principle of harmony between humanity and nature, the YPL seeks to balance economic growth with ecological protection. It addresses decades of industrial, agricultural, and developmental pressures that have degraded the Yangtze River Basin, aiming to integrate ecological restoration, sustainable resource use, and coordinated governance.

Key measures of the law include permanent fishing bans in critical waters, regulation of sand mining, navigation controls in sensitive zones, pollution control, and biodiversity restoration. The YPL also prohibits relocating polluting industries upstream, restricts hazardous chemical transport, and protects shoreline and wetland ecosystems.

As is increasingly the case in China, the YPL embeds environmental protection into economic and land-use planning. By combining detailed statutory provisions, cross-agency cooperation, public oversight and adaptive planning, the YPL creates a model of environmental governance which not only advances China’s ecological modernisation but also offers a potential blueprint for Global South nations confronting similar development–environment tensions.

The author is a Turkish socialist and postgraduate student of Chinese Law and Governance at Tongji University, Shanghai.

As stated in Xi Jinping’s article “Green Mountains and Clean Waters are also Gold and Silver Mountains”, while economic development and growth are prioritized, the environment should not be sacrificed for these goals[i]. Again, in Xi Jinping’s 2017 keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, green development was emphasized[ii]. In the same speech, he called for strengthening cooperation in ecological and environmental protection and for building an ecological civilization while achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Also in 2017, the Chinese government published the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Green Belt and Road Construction and the Belt and Road Ecological and Environmental Cooperation Plan. From all of these, it can be understood that while the Communist Party of China emphasizes development, the principle of “harmony between humans and nature” is adopted as a guiding concept in China’s path to modernization.[iii]

In terms of these principles, the Yangtze River carries significant importance. Following China’s economic reforms, the rapid development of industry and agricultural methods implemented to increase productivity have led to the pollution of the Yangtze. However, the Chinese government has taken significant protective steps in this regard, one of which is the Yangtze River Protection Law, a unique law exclusively dedicated to the protection of the Yangtze. In this sense, I believe that analyzing this law is important in terms of its potential to serve as a model for countries in the Global South.

There are seven laws related to the environment in China.[iv] Although the Constitution holds a different place within the legal hierarchy, special laws also have practical application in their respective areas. In essence, Article 26 of the Constitution of China directly mandates state action to protect and improve the living and ecological environment. It requires pollution control, afforestation, and forest protection. This is the most direct article in the Constitution concerning the environment and represents the principle of “ecological civilization.” On the other hand, Article 22 of the Constitution, by stipulating the protection of sites of scenic and historic importance, combines environmental and cultural elements under the umbrella of national identity. Articles 9 and 10 also form the constitutional backbone of environmental protection.

China’s progress proves socialism is the only viable political framework for saving the planet

The following article by Carlos Martinez argues that China’s remarkable progress in green energy and other aspects of environmental sustainability demonstrates that socialism is the only viable framework for addressing the global climate crisis.

In June 2025, China surpassed 1 terawatt (TW) of installed solar power—about 45 percent of the global total—while combined solar and wind capacity now exceeds coal, marking a pivotal shift and decisive progress towards the country’s goal of achieving net zero by 2060.

Carlos states that China’s successes stem from its socialist system: public ownership and central planning allow for the rapid implementation of large-scale environmental initiatives. “China’s economic system is structured in such a way that political and economic priorities are determined not by capital’s drive for constant expansion but by the needs and aspirations of the people.”

In contrast, capitalist countries continue subsidising fossil fuels and outsourcing emissions while pushing responsibility onto individuals. Decades of climate summits and treaties have failed to slow global emissions, and Green New Deal proposals in the West remain mostly rhetorical.

Carlos concludes that China’s example shows how socialism can provide the structural tools necessary to tackle climate change—offering both practical support for developing countries and political inspiration for those in the capitalist West.

It was reported in late June 2025 that China has reached a historic milestone in its energy transition: the country’s cumulative installed solar capacity has surpassed 1 terawatt (TW). This represents approximately 45 percent of the global total, and is several times higher than the figure for the US (177 gigawatts (GW)) and the European Union (269 GW).

According to the latest figures released by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), the nation’s total installed capacity of wind and solar photovoltaic power has reached 1.5 TW, outstripping thermal power for the first time. This achievement solidifies China’s status as the world’s only renewable energy superpower, and reflects its firm commitment to phasing out its use of fossil fuels.

Ecological civilisation

This progress is a manifestation of China’s program of ecological civilisation, which promotes balanced and sustainable development directed towards the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature, and which has led to China emerging as the undisputed global leader in renewable energy, biodiversity protection, forestation, pollution reduction and sustainable transport .

China’s strategy is based on an understanding that, in the words of President Xi Jinping, “humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature and go down the beaten path of extracting resources without investing in conservation, pursuing development at the expense of protection, and exploiting resources without restoration”.

Panda progress: biodiversity protection and wildlife conservation in China

In the week before the start of our recent delegation, Carlos Martinez joined fellow Friends of Socialist China co-founder Danny Haiphong on a tour of Chongqing and Chengdu organised by Beijing Review. One of the visits organised by our hosts was to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

In the article below, originally published in Beijing Review, Carlos reflects on the visit, and highlights how decades of conservation efforts – such as habitat protection, scientific breeding, and the creation of national parks – have led to a near doubling of the wild panda population, as a result of which their status has been upgraded from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’.

The article notes that China’s biodiversity efforts go well beyond pandas. The country has launched protection programs for other endangered species like the Tibetan antelope and Siberian tiger, while expanding afforestation on a massive scale. Forest coverage has doubled over the past 40 years, and projects like the Green Great Wall have successfully contained desertification, including surrounding the vast Taklimakan Desert with a 3,000-km green belt.

China’s ecological vision is grounded in both traditional philosophy and modern socialist governance. Its concept of ecological civilisation emphasises harmony between humans and nature, and has enabled large-scale environmental progress through the deployment of vast resources and people-centred economic planning.

China also promotes international cooperation on biodiversity protection. It supports Africa’s Great Green Wall, partners with Kenya on biodiversity research, and collaborates with Brazil on satellite monitoring of the Amazon, among other examples. At the 2024 G20 Summit, President Xi reaffirmed China’s commitment to helping developing nations pursue sustainable development, calling for the G20 “to support developing countries in adopting sustainable production and lifestyle, properly responding to challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, enhancing ecological conservation, and achieving harmony between human and nature.”

Carlos describes how China is leading the way in ecological conservation and proving that large-scale biodiversity protection is both achievable and essential.

On May 21, I visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan. The panda sanctuary was truly impressive: vast and lush. The pandas appear happy and healthy, enjoying a huge area in which to roam freely and consume the abundant bamboo supply. Staff are clearly very dedicated to the animals’ care.

China has emerged as a global leader in wildlife conservation. In 1979, the World Wildlife Fund became the first international conservation organization to sign a cooperation agreement with China. Since that time, China’s wild giant panda population has almost doubled (to just under 2,000), thanks to extensive breeding, conservation and reforestation efforts, along with scientific advancements. Additionally, the Giant Panda National Park, consisting of 67 nature reserves and covering a vast 27,134 square km, was opened in 2020 with the express purpose of protecting the panda population.

As a result of all these efforts, the giant panda’s status has been downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

China has also in recent decades strengthened protection of several other endangered species—including the Siberian tiger, Amur leopard, Tibetan antelope and Hainan gibbon—through habitat protection, artificial breeding and cultivation, and reintroduction to nature. Former UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has said that China’s efforts in ecological protection and restoration “echo profoundly with the concept of sustainable development embodied in the United Nations Agenda 2030 (Adopted in 2015, this is a global action plan to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030—Ed.), in whose implementation China is emerging as a leader.”

Importance of biodiversity

Action on wildlife conservation and biodiversity protection is essential for a healthy planet and for human wellbeing. Balanced, thriving ecosystems contribute to climate regulation, agricultural production, pollination, nutrient cycling, medicine development, disease control, pest control and much more. Healthy ecosystems are better placed to withstand stresses such as flooding, extreme heat and invasive species, and to adapt to environmental change. As prominent British data scientist Hannah Ritchie points out in her 2024 book Not the End of the World, “From the food we eat and the fresh water we drink to the regulation of the climate: we are dependent on the balance of species around us.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping, when visiting a wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe in December 2015, phrased it well, “Wildlife plays a crucial role in the intricate web of life on Earth, contributing substantially to the natural ecological system. The wellbeing of these creatures is intricately intertwined with the sustainable development of humanity.”

Unfortunately, biodiversity is under severe threat as a result of climate change, deforestation, habitat loss and pollution. Scientists estimate that species loss is occurring at over 1,000 times the rate it would without human activity. Therefore, the UN SDGs include a call for governments around the world to “take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.”

China’s energy transition is a world historical breakthrough

In the following article written for the Morning Star, Nick Matthews highlights a major breakthrough in the battle against climate catastrophe: China’s clean energy transition has led to a net reduction in carbon emissions, in spite of the fact that China’s economy and its energy demand continue to grow.

Drawing on data from the well-regarded Carbon Brief website, he reports that in the first quarter of 2025, China’s CO₂ emissions fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year, driven largely by a 5.8 percent drop in emissions from the power sector. This marks the first time China’s emissions have decreased due to expanded clean energy capacity, rather than reduced energy demand (as happened during the Covid-19 pandemic).

Nick notes that electrification of transport and heating is accelerating, with electricity demand from EV charging and battery swapping services growing by 78 percent in 2023 – 3.5 times more than the rest of the world combined. China now leads globally not only in electric cars, but also in electric vans, buses, two-wheelers and heat pumps.

This energy shift has taken many experts by surprise, and has a clear global impact. Nick cites the historian Adam Tooze as saying: “China’s huge surge in renewable energy, above all in solar power, actually puts us on track for the first time to meet these objectives”

Major challenges remain for China’s project of ecological civilisation – especially grid restructuring and balancing renewable supply – but reaching the goal of peak emissions several years ahead of the 2030 target can be considered a turning point. The country’s rapid clean energy development shows that with the political will – which is of course a function of a socialist political structure – a sustainable future is entirely possible.

While most news this year has been nothing short of bleak, we have had a piece of news that is of world historical significance. I am not sure how many Morning Star readers are regular readers of the Carbon Brief, a British website that covers the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy.

The news I am referring to not that the British output of solar energy this year has increased by 42 per cent due to the driest spring on record, welcome as that is. The even better news was: “For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth.

“The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that China’s emissions were down 1.6 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1 per cent in the latest 12 months. Electricity supply from new wind, solar and nuclear capacity was enough to cut coal-power output even as demand surged, whereas previous falls were due to weak growth.”

The reduction in China’s first-quarter CO2 emissions in 2025 was due to a 5.8 per cent drop in the power sector. While power demand grew by 2.5 per cent overall, there was a 4.7 per cent drop in thermal power generation, mainly coal and gas.

Increases in solar, wind and nuclear power generation, driven by investments in new generating capacity, more than covered the growth in demand. The increase in hydropower, which is more related to seasonal variation, helped push down fossil power generation.

This is not some small country making the clean energy transition. This is the world’s largest manufacturing economy.

China is way ahead in electrifying heating and transport, and building electrolyser capacity. In 2023, China’s electricity demand from the charging and battery swapping service industry grew by 78 per cent and added an estimated 56 TWh to China’s electricity demand, 3.5 times more than the rest of the world.

What that means is measured in terms of power consumed. China’s electrification of road transport is 3.5 times larger than that of the rest of the world put together.

It is this revolution that has Western governments and automakers in a panic. China accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s electric light-vehicle sales, but this segment represents only an estimated 18 TWh of the 56 TWh demand increase, with the rest coming from electric vans, trucks, buses and two-wheelers, which China dominates globally. It is also the largest heat pump market in the world, with more installations per year than any other country.

The significance of this news is hard to overestimate. At Cop28 in 2023, many countries around the world committed to tripling global renewable electricity capacity by 2030. If undertaken, this has the potential to almost halve power sector emissions by 2030, as coal-fired power generation will be replaced first. Furthermore, it will provide enough new electricity to drive forward the electrification of transport, home and industrial heating with a 32 per cent increase in electricity demand.

Many thought that this was something of a pipedream. But as leading economic historian Adam Tooze has said: “China’s huge surge in renewable energy, above all in solar power, actually puts us on track for the first time to meet these objectives.”

As the clean energy think tank Ember reports, it has taken experts around the world by surprise. What we are witnessing is the most rapid take-up of a significant energy technology in history.

It’s worth looking in detail at what China is achieving. The Carbon Brief report by Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, goes into a lot of detail and is well evidenced.

We are not quite on the road to a carbon-neutral world, as Ember points out, the drama of green electrification is only just beginning. It is one thing to replace dirty power generation for existing uses with solar and wind. It is another to build out the entire electricity system to meet the new demands for electricity in data-processing, transport, domestic and industrial uses.

The challenges of switching to renewables and the restructuring of energy grids have only just begun, and balancing supply across a myriad of renewable sources clearly represents a significant challenge. China’s example, however, shows that with political will, it is possible. So mark May 2025 in your calendar; thanks to China, we can now see the outline of what a carbon-free energy future looks like.

Nicaragua and China break ground on landmark solar project to power water access and energy sovereignty

The following report in Telesur notes that Nicaragua, in partnership with China, has inaugurated construction on the country’s largest solar plant to date, powering water systems, cutting energy costs, and deepening South-South cooperation on infrastructure for social good. The plant marks “a strategic leap toward energy independence, climate resilience, and universal access to clean water”.

According to the article, the Enesolar-3 photovoltaic facility in Masaya, funded with $83 million of Chinese investment, is set to supply renewable energy to the country’s water utility, ENACAL, directly benefiting nearly 4 million people across urban and rural communities.

Framed as more than just an infrastructure project, Enesolar-3 is part of a broader initiative by the Sandinista government to expand renewable energy, reduce fossil fuel dependency, and ensure access to public utilities as a basic human right.

Laureano Ortega Murillo, presidential advisor for investment and international cooperation, stated at the the cornerstone ceremony that “this is our Sandinista Popular Revolution delivering works of progress, development, dignity, and peace for the Nicaraguan people—together with our brothers from the People’s Republic of China”.

When construction is complete, Enesolar-3 will be Nicaragua’s largest green solar power plant.

China’s ambassador to Nicaragua, Chen Xi, “reaffirmed China’s support for Nicaragua’s development and praised the South-South partnership as one rooted in equality, sovereignty, and mutual respect”.

Nicaragua has inaugurated construction on a major solar power plant in partnership with China, marking a strategic leap toward energy independence, climate resilience, and universal access to clean water. Funded by an $83 million investment from Beijing, the Enesolar-3 photovoltaic facility in Nindirí, Masaya, is set to supply renewable energy to the country’s water utility, ENACAL, directly benefiting nearly 4 million people across urban and rural communities.

Don’t believe the New Cold War lies, China is leading the world in climate solutions

In the following article for Liberation News, Tina Landis – author of the book Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism – argues that recent trend of placing blame for the climate crisis on China is incorrect and ahistorical. While it’s true that China currently emits more carbon dioxide than any other countries, this statistic ignores critical context: China manufactures 30 percent of the world’s goods and houses nearly 18 percent of its population. On a per capita and consumption-based level, US emissions are significantly higher. Meanwhile, the US’s outsourcing of production – and thereby pollution – to China is rarely acknowledged.

China’s centrally planned socialist system has enabled rapid and large-scale action on environmental issues. Since the early 2000s, China has embedded ecological goals into its national development strategies. It has implemented stringent environmental impact assessments, halted major polluting projects, and dramatically improved air quality. By 2021, particulate pollution dropped by 42 percent. The country still uses fossil fuels but is aggressively expanding renewables: by mid-2024, wind and solar capacity surpassed coal, and China is on track to reach its ambitious renewable energy goals ahead of time.

China leads globally in electric vehicles and public transit electrification, producing 60 percent of the world’s electric vehicles and 90 percent of electric buses. It also has by far the world’s most extensive high-speed rail network. What’s more, these sustainable development projects have not resulted in poverty; indeed they have helped to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty.

Massive ecological restoration efforts such as as taking place in the Loess Plateau, the vast afforestation projects, and the construction of sponge cities have all contributed to improving biodiversity and climate resilience. The Belt and Road Initiative exports this model of green development abroad.

Tina concludes that such extraordinary progress is only possible within a context of socialism, urging readers in the West to reject anti-China narratives and learn from China’s example.

These types of large scale projects inside and outside of China can only be achieved under a centralised, socialist planned economy. Here in the heart of empire, we need to see past the demonisation campaigns that are meant to win our support for U.S. war with China, and instead learn from the ecologically sustainable development efforts that they are leading.

At the time of the 1949 revolution, China was largely an agrarian society with widespread poverty, famine and lack of infrastructure. Rapid development over several decades resulted in a significant rise in pollution in China.

The U.S. mainstream media never addresses the outsourcing of production to China and thus the outsourcing of pollution. Rarely are emissions accounted for based on where goods are produced versus where those goods are consumed, or population size of a country relative to emissions levels. If you take a snapshot of emissions today and ignore population and consumption of goods, China does have the highest carbon emissions with the U.S. coming in second. But China produces 30% of the world’s goods and accounts for 17.7% of global population, while the U.S. is the largest consumer of Chinese goods globally and accounts for 4.3% of global population.

When you look at per capita emissions of each country, as well as per capita consumption-based emissions, the U.S. is responsible for a much larger portion of global emissions than China.

China and Pacific Island countries join together to address the challenge of climate change

In a striking practical demonstration of China’s principled stand on the equality of nations, be they big or small, Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Xiamen (Fujian province) on May 28-29. Wang co-chaired the meeting with President and Foreign Minister of Kiribati Taneti Maamau and it was attended by those Pacific Island countries having diplomatic relations with China – Niue, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Fiji and Samoa.

Wang Yi said that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pacific Island countries (PICs). The everlasting friendship between the two sides has transcended mountains and seas. Regardless of changes in the international landscape, China has always regarded PICs as good friends, good partners, and good brothers. The development of the bilateral ties vividly demonstrates that friendship, whenever it happens, is cherishable; cooperation, whatever its size, is valuable. The “four full respects” principle put forward by President Xi Jinping, that is, China fully respects the sovereignty and independence of PICs, fully respects their will, fully respects their cultural traditions and fully respects their effort to seek strength through unity, constitutes the fundamental guideline for China’s relations with PICs.

He added that China’s cooperation with PICs follows the trend of history, responds to the call of the times, and has yielded fruitful outcomes that benefit the people of PICs. It has not only helped each other succeed but also promoted regional peace, stability and prosperity, setting a model for peaceful coexistence between countries of different sizes and serving as an example for seeking development through unity among the Global South.

Wang Yi put forward a six-point suggestion on building a community with a shared future between China and PICs:

Uphold mutual respect. China will firmly defend the basic norm in international relations of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and resolutely support PICs in safeguarding their sovereignty, security, and development interests. China believes that PICs will continue to abide by the one-China principle and support China’s just position on the question of Taiwan.

Prioritise development. Efforts will be made to accelerate negotiations on bilateral free trade agreements, strengthen cooperation in agricultural and fishery technology demonstration and training, and expand cooperation on tourism.

Adopt a people-centred approach. China is ready to strengthen experience sharing with PICs in poverty alleviation and primary-level governance. Seven groups of 56 medical personnel, as well as additional Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, will be dispatched to further contribute to the well-being of the people in PICs.

Promote exchange and mutual learning. Both sides should enhance people-to-people exchanges in areas such as media, youth, women, and sports, and maintain close and frequent interactions like relatives. China is ready to carry out joint archaeology and research on the Austronesian language family.

Safeguard fairness and justice. China is ready to work with PICs to firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law.

Maintain solidarity in challenging times. China is ready to enhance coordination and cooperation with PICs in global climate governance, promote the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, uphold the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and urge developed countries to provide funding, technology, and capacity-building support to developing countries. China stays committed to assisting PICs in strengthening climate resilience within the framework of South-South cooperation.

The Chinese Foreign Minister stressed that the world today is far from tranquil, with resurfacing hegemonism and power politics as well as resurging unilateralism and protectionism. In the face of changes of the times and history, China firmly believes that peace, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes remain the only right choice. China is committed to safeguarding world peace, contributing to global development, and upholding international order. China steadfastly stands on the side of international fairness and justice, the right side of history, and the side of the vast number of developing countries and consistently acts as a trustworthy and reliable partner for Global South countries. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean lies in its capacity to embrace all rivers without rejecting small streams, and the progress of human civilisation depends on pooling strength to overcome difficulties together. China is ready to join hands with all parties to write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future between China and PICs.

China also announced a six-point Initiative on Deepening Cooperation with Pacific Island Countries on Combating Climate Change:

China will work with PICs to build a global climate governance system featuring fairness, equity and win-win cooperation. Reaffirming that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement are the main channel and basic legal framework for international cooperation on climate change, China stays committed to their goals, principles and rules and guided by the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities established in the Convention.

China will enhance coordination and cooperation with PICs in the multilateral climate response process. China will encourage the international community to fully understand the special situation and concerns of developing countries, especially PICs, on the issue of climate change. China will urge developed countries to earnestly fulfil their obligations and commitments, and provide adequate funding, technology and capacity-building support to developing countries.

China will firmly support PICs in addressing climate change through sustainable development.

China will speed up the implementation of cooperation programs on climate change response. Efforts will be made to promote the establishment of low-carbon demonstration zones, carry out capacity-building training programs to support PICs in cultivating professional personnel, and strengthen the leading role of South-South cooperation projects in enhancing PICs’ capacity to address climate change. China welcomes more PICs to join the International Zero-Carbon Island Cooperation Initiative.

China will deepen cooperation with PICs on disaster prevention, mitigation and response and provide disaster monitoring and early warning technology and services, post-disaster emergency supplies assistance, emergency humanitarian assistance and disaster assessment support.

China fully understands the importance of marine environment to PICs. China will support PICs in protecting the marine ecological environment, improving the infrastructure and capacity to respond to sea level rising, coastal erosion and marine disasters, and carrying out studies and exchanges on the impact of sea level rising on islands.

In the joint statement adopted by the meeting, China reiterated its policy on developing relations with Pacific Island Countries put forth by President Xi Jinping: fully respecting the sovereignty and independence of Pacific Island Countries, fully respecting the will of Pacific Island Countries, fully respecting the ethnic and cultural traditions of Pacific Island Countries, and fully respecting Pacific Island Countries’ efforts to seek strength through unity. China stressed that there are no political strings attached to China’s assistance, no imposing one’s will onto others, and no empty promises.

Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time

The analysis below by Lauri Myllyvirta, originally published on Carbon Brief, demonstrates that, “for the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth”. This indicates that China has almost certainly achieved its target of peaking emissions before 2030.

The article reports that China’s emissions were down 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, and notes that the country’s decline in fossil fuel usage resulted not from a slowdown in the economy or reduced energy demand, but from a rapid increase in the share of clean energy – solar, wind, nuclear and hydroelectric – in the power mix. “If this pattern is sustained, then it would herald a peak and sustained decline in China’s power-sector emissions.”

While noting that the possibility of a rebound in emissions later in the coming years cannot be ruled out should the government’s energy strategy significantly shift, Myllyvirta writes: “All of this suggests that there is potential for China’s emissions to continue to fall and for the country to achieve substantial absolute emissions reductions over the next five years”.

This progress is world-historic, because China’s emissions are reducing in spite of the fact that its overall energy demand continues to rise, and it continues to be a major industrial power. Thus its emissions reduction is the result not of de-industrialisation but of systematic investment and innovation in renewable energy. As such it is a model of sustainable development with important implications for other developing countries.

Lauri Myllyvirta is lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute.

For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth.

The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that China’s emissions were down 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1% in the latest 12 months.

Electricity supply from new wind, solar and nuclear capacity was enough to cut coal-power output even as demand surged, whereas previous falls were due to weak growth.

The analysis, based on official figures and commercial data, shows that China’s CO2 emissions have now been stable, or falling, for more than a year.

However, they remain only 1% below the latest peak, implying that any short-term jump could cause China’s CO2 emissions to rise to a new record.

Other key findings include:

Growth in clean power generation has now overtaken the current and long-term average growth in electricity demand, pushing down fossil fuel use.
Power-sector emissions fell 2% year-on-year in the 12 months to March 2025.
If this pattern is sustained, then it would herald a peak and sustained decline in China’s power-sector emissions.
The trade “war” initiated by US president Donald Trump has prompted renewed efforts to shift China’s economy towards domestic consumption, rather than exports.
A new pricing policy for renewables has caused a rush to install before it takes effect.
There is a growing gap that would need to be bridged if China is to meet the 2030 emissions targets it pledged under the Paris Agreement.

If sustained, the drop in power-sector CO2 as a result of clean-energy growth could presage the sort of structural decline in emissions anticipated in previous analysis for Carbon Brief.

The trend of falling power-sector emissions is likely to continue in 2025.

Xi Jinping: China will not slow down its climate actions or reduce its support for international cooperation

In an alarming international context in which the Trump administration has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and is generally “walking away from global climate action“, China has reiterated its firm commitment to green development and global cooperation to prevent climate breakdown.

The following remarks by President Xi Jinping to the Leaders’ Meeting on Climate and the Just Transition on 23 April 2025 outline China’s vision for advancing global climate governance. Xi notes that, although “global climate governance has gone through winds and rains, green and low-carbon development has eventually become a trend of our times”.

Obviously referencing the United States, he points out that “some major country’s persistent pursuit of unilateralism and protectionism has seriously impacted international rules and the international order”. This presents a significant challenge. Nonetheless, “we will overcome the headwinds and steadily move forward global climate governance and all progressive endeavours of the world”.

China has been implementing a Green Belt and Road Initiative at an impressive pace, and is involved in renewable energy projects with countries throughout the Global South. This will continue. “As a member of the Global South, China will vigorously deepen South-South cooperation and continue to provide help for fellow developing countries to the best of its capability.”

Xi details some of China’s remarkably achievements in environmental sustainability in recent years: “Since I announced China’s goals for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality five years ago, we have built the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system as well as the largest and most complete new energy industrial chain. China also leads the world in the speed and scale of ‘greening, contributing a quarter of the world’s newly-added area of afforestation.”

He concludes by promising that “China will not slow down its climate actions” and will play its part in the building of a clean, beautiful, and sustainable world.

The text of the speech was first published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.

Your Excellency Secretary General António Guterres,
Your Excellency President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to join you virtually at the Leaders Meeting on Climate and the Just Transition.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Over the past decade, global climate governance has gone through winds and rains, but green and low-carbon development has eventually become a trend of our times. This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. As unprecedented global changes unfold at a faster pace, humanity has come to a new crossroads. Although some major country’s persistent pursuit of unilateralism and protectionism has seriously impacted international rules and the international order, history will, as always, move forward through twists and turns. As long as we enhance confidence, solidarity and cooperation, we will overcome the headwinds and steadily move forward global climate governance and all progressive endeavors of the world. Let me share four points with you in this regard.

First, we must adhere to multilateralism. The more volatile and turbulent the international situation becomes, the greater the need for us to firmly safeguard the U.N.-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, and firmly safeguard international fairness and justice. The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement are the legal cornerstone of international climate cooperation. It is important for all countries to champion the rule of law, honor commitments, prioritize green and low-carbon development, and jointly respond to the climate crisis through multilateral governance.

Second, we must deepen international cooperation. Solidarity and cooperation are needed more than ever as the world faces multiple, compounded challenges. We should rise above estrangement and conflict with openness and inclusiveness, boost technological innovation and industrial transformation through cooperation, and facilitate the free flow of quality green technologies and products, so that they can be accessible, affordable and beneficial for all countries, especially the developing ones. As a member of the Global South, China will vigorously deepen South-South cooperation and continue to provide help for fellow developing countries to the best of its capability.

Third, we must accelerate the just transition. Clear waters and green mountains are just as valuable as gold and silver. Green transformation is not only the essential way to address climate change, but also a new engine for economic and social development. Such transformation must be people-centered and pursued in a way that advances the well-being of people and climate governance in tandem, and strike a balance between multiple goals including environmental protection, economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation. Developed countries are obliged to extend assistance and support to developing countries, help drive the global shift toward green and low-carbon development, and contribute to the common and long-term well-being of people of all countries.

Fourth, we must strengthen results-oriented actions. Instead of talking the talk, we must walk the walk. We must turn our goals into tangible results through systematic policies and concrete measures. All parties should do their utmost to formulate and implement their program of action for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) while coordinating economic development and energy transition. China will announce its 2035 NDCs covering all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém.

Colleagues,

Harmony between man and nature is a defining feature of Chinese modernization. China is a steadfast actor and major contributor in promoting global green development. Since I announced China’s goals for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality five years ago, we have built the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system as well as the largest and most complete new energy industrial chain. China also leads the world in the speed and scale of “greening,” contributing a quarter of the world’s newly-added area of afforestation.

However the world may change, China will not slow down its climate actions, will not reduce its support for international cooperation, and will not cease its efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind. With the future of humanity and the well-being of our people in mind, let’s earnestly honor the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, do our utmost respectively and collectively, and build a clean, beautiful, and sustainable world together.

Thank you.

China’s solar space station: A game-changer in renewable energy

We are pleased to republish below an article by James Wood, a British-Australian technologist and geopolitical analyst based in China, about exciting developments being made by Chinese scientists in the realm of space-based solar power (SBSP), supplementing the article we posted several weeks ago, Science fiction or science reality: China makes impressive progress towards space-based solar power, and providing an Australian perspective.

Describing the technology in easy-to-understand terms, James writes: “Imagine a kilometre-wide solar array orbiting Earth, harvesting limitless, uninterrupted solar energy and beaming it back home, day and night, without the interference of clouds or darkness… Unlike Earth-based solar farms, which suffer from weather conditions and night-time dips, a solar station in space captures continuous, unfiltered solar radiation, potentially more efficient than anything on the ground. The energy is then converted into microwaves and beamed down to terrestrial receiving stations, where it is transformed back into electricity and integrated into the grid.”

The author notes that China’s “state-driven, centralised approach allows for massive co-ordination and rapid development, unlike the fragmented, slow-moving private sector initiatives in the US”. Meanwhile Australia, “despite its vast potential, has been lagging in both space-based technology and terrestrial renewable energy advancements”. This is attributed to inadequate infrastructure and a lack of long-term strategic planning.

In this as in many other fields, China’s socialist system is proving its superiority over capitalism in terms of moving human understanding and capacity forward.

This article originally appeared on Pearls and Irritations.

China is making the once sci-fi dream of space-based solar power a reality and leaving the West scrambling to keep up. Imagine a kilometre-wide solar array orbiting Earth, harvesting limitless, uninterrupted solar energy and beaming it back home, day and night, without the interference of clouds or darkness. The China Academy of Space Technology is spearheading this geostationary solar power station and with a 2028-2050 roadmap, Beijing is set to redefine the global energy game.

In 2028, China plans to launch a low Earth orbit test satellite generating 10 kilowatts (kW) to trial microwave power transmission. By 2030, a 1-megawatt (MW) station is expected to be deployed in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km, where it will be assembled in space before beaming power back to Earth. By 2035, the system aims to scale up to 10 MW, proving its potential for mass energy production. By 2050, the goal is to have a commercially operated solar power plant in space generating two gigawatts (GW) of electricity with an approximately one-kilometre-wide antenna and complex solar cell array assembled in space.

Unlike Earth-based solar farms, which suffer from weather conditions and night-time dips, a solar station in space captures continuous, unfiltered solar radiation, potentially more efficient than anything on the ground. The energy is then converted into microwaves and beamed down to terrestrial receiving stations, where it is transformed back into electricity and integrated into the grid. The Bishan testing facility in Chongqing, backed by $15 million in funding, is already fine-tuning the radio wave transmission technology needed to transmit solar energy from orbit to Earth.

China’s Ecological Civilization explained

The following article by Douglas Rooney, originally published on Li Jingjing’s China Up Close blog, explores the concept of ecological civilisation in depth.

While the phrase is most often associated with President Xi Jinping – who has made it a central theme of Chinese governance – the concept has deep roots in Chinese culture, and is closely connected to the idea of harmony with nature. Doug notes: “The concept of an ‘ecological civilisation’ was first proposed by European researchers in the late 1960s. The term began to be used by Chinese academics in the 1980s and quickly gained in popularity among scientists and researchers. In the 1990s and early 2000s, prominent politicians such as Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping began to push for theories of ecological civilisation to be adopted as Chinese government policy.”

Doug explains that the concept of ecological civilisation became firmly embedded in China’s political mainstream in the 2000s, and is by now widely understood and embraced by the Chinese people. Its acceptance is partly due to its resonance with traditional culture, but also due to the way it has been linked to the country’s modernisation project and improvement of living conditions. In short, “the construction of China’s ecological civilization has created an environment in which investing in the green transition is a good way to make money… China has achieved remarkable progress on the environment by demonstrating to normal people as well as to business and community leaders that they need not choose between the environment and economic prosperity. Indeed, preserving the environment and tackling pollution can often be a route to economic prosperity.”

The results speak for themselves:

The scale of China’s green transformation in the last few decades is truly staggering. In 2023 alone, China would spend more on its green transition than the rest of the world combined and accounted for 75% of the global wind farm and the majority of solar panel installations. China’s EV batteries account for 60% of the global market. Around 40% of the world’s hydrogen refueling stations are in China, along with the world’s largest green hydrogen project and the world’s first zero-carbon factory.

Furthermore, with the Trump administration in the US pursuing a strategy of environmental recklessness, China is more critical than ever to the global green transition. “East Africa’s largest solar power plant was built by China, as was the Der Aar Wind Farm, one of South Africa’s largest. China was also behind Suriname’s hybrid microgrid solar power project, which ended rural reliance on diesel for the generation of electricity. They also helped build Brazil’s colossal Belo Monte Hydropower plant. As the United States returns to climate denial under the Trump administration, China will be the Global South’s only realistic partner in achieving a green transition that still delivers industrial development.”

Douglas Rooney is a Scottish Christian Socialist, currently working in Beijing.

In 2005, Xi Jinping, then secretary of Zhejiang Province, wrote an article in the Zhejiang Daily newspaper called “Green Mountains and Clear Waters are also Gold and Silver Mountains.” The article argued in favour of Hu Jintao’s concept of the scientific outlook of development, which emphasized the harmony between humanity and nature and underlined that while economic development was vitally important, this could not come at the expense of the environment. This would become known as the “Two Mountains Theory.”

Upon becoming president in 2012, Xi would make the “Two Mountains Theory” a cornerstone of the Chinese government’s approach to development. However, the concept underpinning his “Two Mountains Theory” – that of an ecological civilization – did not originate with Xi. Instead, his 2005 article and the green policies he has championed, first as secretary of Zhejiang and later as president of China, are part of a larger movement within Chinese society that was inspired by theories of ecological civilization coming out of the European scientific community in the 1960s and 1970s. What Xi and other leading Chinese theorists did was to fit these concepts into the Chinese context. Today, China has made the concept of an ecological civilization very much its own, and, I would argue, you cannot understand contemporary China without first understanding what China means when it talks about its ecological civilization.

Video: China’s environmental strategies

Embedded below is a talk given by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez at a meeting of the South Yorkshire Morning Star Supporters Group, at the Central United Reformed Church, Sheffield, Britain, on Thursday 27 March 2025.

Carlos explains why it’s not reasonable for the West to pin the blame for the environmental crisis onto China or to portray it as a climate criminal; the remarkable progress China is making on renewable energy, electric transport, biodiversity protection and afforestation; China’s role in pushing forward the global energy transition; and the dangers of the escalating New Cold War in terms of preventing urgently-needed cooperation on environmental issues.

The presentation was followed by a lively discussion and Q&A.

China, Britain pledge to jointly address climate change

Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang met with Ed Miliband, British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, in Beijing on Monday 17 March. According to a UK government press release, this was the first formal bilateral discussion between the two countries on climate action in nearly eight years.

At the meeting, Ding Xuexiang stated that developing stable and mutually beneficial relations between China and the UK serves the common interests of the two peoples, facilitates global economic growth, and promotes joint efforts to address global challenges.

Xinhua reports: “Miliband said the UK government sincerely hopes to enhance engagement with China, is committed to developing a long-term and constructive bilateral relationship, and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with China on energy security and addressing climate change.”

Miliband also met with Wang Hongzhi, head of China’s National Energy Administration, after which meeting the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding, outlining key areas of cooperation including power grids, battery storage, offshore wind power and green hydrogen.

As Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez commented to the Morning Star, it is a positive sign that Miliband has visited Beijing and that the British government is exploring opportunities for cooperation with China around the climate emergency.

After all, China is the world’s only renewable energy superpower, and is leading the way globally in terms of electric transport, afforestation, biodiversity protection, pollution reduction, sustainable water management, and more. A report from Yale School of the Environment notes:

Today, China has more than 80 percent of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity. The extraordinary scale of China’s renewables sector output has driven down prices worldwide, and this is a key factor in reducing the cost barrier to renewable systems for poorer countries. Today China not only holds important positions in wind and battery technologies, but a Chinese company, BYD, has become the world’s biggest EV manufacturer, and China is poised to pose a formidable global challenge in all aspects of electric transportation to established vehicle brands.

The idea that the West can solve the climate crisis while simultaneously “decoupling” from China is thus entirely unrealistic, and clearly there is a great deal Britain can learn from China.

Miliband’s visit to Beijing is a step in the right direction. Less helpful are his remarks in the Guardian on 14 March 2025, promising to “raise issues including forced labour in supply chains, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and human rights in Hong Kong”.

The slanderous accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang have been used to impose sanctions on Chinese renewable energy materials, and as such form a direct impediment to global climate action.

Meanwhile it’s Miliband’s own government which is basing its growth strategy on the expansion of the arms industry rather than pursuing a Green New Deal. This same government has actively contributed to NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, which is having a disastrous environmental impact – aside from its tragic more immediate human impact.

Furthermore, the British government’s recent cuts to its overseas aid budget will “make it more difficult for the government to deliver on a promise to increase climate finance to developing countries”. This doesn’t compare favourably with China’s construction of a Green Belt and Road, providing investment in renewable energy and green infrastructure projects across the Global South.

British politicians would do well to drop their empire nostalgia and to avoid hectoring their Chinese counterparts. When it comes to humanity’s shared project of preventing climate catastrophe, Britain has more to learn than to teach. While China has established itself as by far the global leader in renewable energy, Britain “has lost its position as a global leader on climate action”.

Miliband is correct to say that “it is simply an act of negligence to today’s and future generations not to engage China.” Parroting Washington’s anti-China Cold War propaganda will only create friction in this important relationship. It is to be hoped that Miliband’s trip to Beijing is a springboard for further cooperation.

Science fiction or science reality: China makes impressive progress towards space-based solar power

The article below, written by J Hagler for Workers World, reports on the Chinese Academy of Space Technology’s project of building a Space Solar Power Station (SSPS), expected to launch into low orbit by 2028.

The notion of space-based solar power has existed for decades, but has been considered too expensive and technically challenging to be feasible. The concept essentially consists of launching solar panels into space, where they can receive sunlight (at a far higher intensity than on Earth, and constantly rather than intermittently), and then converting the energy into microwaves, which are beamed to Earth and converted back into electricity. While this technology sounds far-fetched – and will likely not be economically competitive for some time to come – it has some significant advantages over terrestrial solar power, including the ability to generate power 24/7, and the potential to direct power to specific locations on Earth according to need.

Long Lehao, a rocket scientist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was cited in the South China Morning Post as saying: “Imagine installing a solar array 1km wide along the 36,000km geostationary orbit… The energy collected in one year would be equivalent to the total amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth.”

It’s no accident that People’s China is taking the lead in this field. As Hagler writes, “the project illustrates socialist China’s ability to do long term planning… The potential to create free clean energy is here and is being led by a country with a planned economy, actively pursuing socialist development.” A capitalist system oriented towards short-term profit is increasingly incapable of conducting such large-scale research in the public interest. “It’s easier for capitalist enterprises to make quarterly profits supplying weapons for killing women and children in Palestine than to develop an economy in a way that benefits all of society, instead of just a wealthy few.”

The article concludes:

The Communist Party of China has proven that innovations capable of seeing humanity through this storm are possible with central planning and socially directed investment, if necessary over a long term.

“The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity,” said fictional Captain Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Humanity is standing on the cusp. Climate change is presenting the U.S. with the same choice nature has gifted all its species: evolve or die; change is the only constant.

As the cost of basic goods and, more importantly, energy continues to rise across the capitalist economies of Japan, Western Europe and North America, others have decided to utilize their economy to actually innovate. Instead of phallic vanity projects of the impotent super-wealthy, presented by SpaceX and Blue Origin, the “Chinese Academy of Space Technology” (CAST) has shown humanity a different way forward into the stars.

The construction of a “Space Solar Power Station” (SSPS) has already begun and is expected to launch into low orbit by 2028. Over 100 researchers and students across a multitude of disciplines are collectively leading the project for the SSPS at Xidian University.

An article in cgtn.com, website of the Chinese Global Television Network, published in June 2022 read: “SSPS is a space-based power generation system used to collect solar energy before converting it to electricity and then microwaves. Next, the energy in microwaves is to be transmitted and harvested by the receiving antenna either in space or on the Earth’s surface, which converts microwaves back into electricity.” (tinyurl.com/cgtn-ssps1)

The project illustrates socialist China’s ability to do long term planning. The same article says: “By 2035, the microwave transmitting antenna is expected to be enlarged to about 100 meters plus power generation of 10 megawatts. The goal in 2050 is to build a commercially operated solar plant that generates electricity of two gigawatts with an antenna that would be around one-kilometer and a complex solar cell array to be assembled in space.”

This project is a monumental undertaking and has the power to generate more kilowatt hours of energy in one year than all of the oil contained within the Earth. It has been called everything from the “Manhattan Project of Energy” to the “Three Gorges Dam of Space.” (tinyurl.com/scmp-ssps)

The potential to create free clean energy is here and is being led by a country with a planned economy, actively pursuing socialist development.

U.S. scientists knew it since 1968

The irony of this announcement is that scientists in the capitalist-led United States have known about this technology since 1968 when scientist and aerospace engineer Peter Glaser conceptualized the idea. U.S. corporations could have spearheaded the development of this technology decades ago. Instead, the government invested a measly $17.5 million into Northrop Grumman in 2013 so the weapons manufacturer could “research” the development of an SSPS.

Similar investment is also going into other weapons companies like Lockheed Martin. Imagine, instead of spending 1.5 trillion U.S. tax dollars on the boondoggle of all weapons systems, the F-35, the U.S. had spent that money building the groundwork of an SSPS. If the U.S. government had something akin to a “five year plan,” they could have made progress in developing this energy source.

It’s easier, however, for capitalist enterprises to make quarterly profits supplying weapons for killing women and children in Palestine than to develop an economy in a way that benefits all of society, instead of just a wealthy few.

Projects like the SSPS could not be coming online at a more crucial time. Climate change is putting into question the future of humanity and, if the worst-case scenarios are to unfold, of most other species as well. The rate of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere is unprecedented in planetary history. Humanity is truly in uncharted waters.

Running an entire economy and society based on what is most profitable is what led the U.S. into these crises. The capitalist class cannot lead the U.S. out of the crises, because the very incentives which make the gears of capitalism turn would grind to a halt if profits are even interrupted, never mind if they ceased entirely due to technologies capable of providing near limitless, scarcity-free energy.

The Communist Party of China has proven that innovations capable of seeing humanity through this storm are possible with central planning and socially directed investment, if necessary over a long term. The U.S., Western Europe, Japan and world capitalism are going through yet another economic crisis while engaged in yet more “forever” wars as the falling rates of profit continue to fall.

The working and oppressed masses of these countries do not have to continue letting their leaders take them down the primrose path of ecocide and World War III. Rosa Luxemburg’s challenge of “socialism or barbarism” is being replaced by a new one: Conjured by the physical limits of the planet itself, the challenge is now becoming “socialism or extinction.”