China 'coming up with solutions for everyone', says Cop30 chief

Mon, 10 Nov, 2025 - 14:58

Sean Murray and Fiona Harvey

Rich countries have lost enthusiasm for combating the climate crisis, while China is surging ahead in producing and using clean energy equipment, the president of the UN climate talks has said.

More countries should follow China’s lead instead of complaining about being outcompeted, said André Corrêa do Lago, the Brazilian diplomat in charge of the Cop30 conference, which began today.

“Somehow the reduction in enthusiasm of the global north is showing that the global south is moving,” Corrêa do Lago told reporters in Belém, the city in the Amazonian rainforest where the fortnight-long Cop30 conference is taking place.

“It is not just this year, it has been moving for years, but it did not have the exposure that it has now.”

He pointed to the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China, which is also the biggest producer and consumer of low-carbon energy.

“China is coming up with solutions that are for everyone, not just China,” he said. “Solar panels are cheaper, they’re so competitive [compared with fossil fuel energy] that they are everywhere now. If you’re thinking of climate change, this is good.”

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Ministers and high-ranking officials from 194 countries will seek to forge plans at Cop30 to stay within, or as close as possible to, the limit of 1.5C of heating set out in the Paris Agreement, to set a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, and to ensure that poor countries receive the help they need.

Top of the agenda will be national plans on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which currently would lead to a devastating 2.5C of heating. Vulnerable countries want to draw up a plan that will show how countries can outdo their current inadequate efforts and meet the Paris Agreement targets.

Dublin demonstration

It comes as climate campaigners in Ireland plan to hold a large-scale demonstration in Dublin this Saturday to call for an end to the era of fossil fuels.

The Stop the Climate Chaos coalition, which includes organisations such as Oxfam Ireland, Friends of the Earth, and Trócaire, expects thousands across the country to attend the event.

The demonstration is taking place as organisers say Cop30 must be a turning point where world leaders finally turn their back on fossil fuels.

“The richest individuals and corporations are driving the crisis while reaping record profits, but communities are fighting back at the ballot box and on the streets,” Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken said.

“We demand bold political choices that rebalance emissions and fund a fair transition. Super-rich polluters, not ordinary members of the public who cannot afford to pay their bills, must pay for the damage they’ve caused.”

The call for action was bolstered by Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which said the data was clear a decade on from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Its director, Carlo Buontempo, said: “A decade after the Paris Agreement, the world is hotter than ever — every year since has ranked among the 10 warmest on record. It’s now evident that the climate is shifting at a pace humanity has never experienced.”

Cop30 is not just another climate conference — it is a crossroads