Mega-polluter China believes it is a climate saviour

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Which countries should shell out more to save the planet? That is one of the big questions being asked at COP29, the UN’s climate summit in Baku this month. A common answer is China, which Westerners accuse of contributing too little to efforts aimed at helping poor countries cope with climate change.

For nearly two decades China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. Chinese officials push back, arguing that their country is still developing and that it is responsible for fewer historical emissions than America and Europe. But their strongest counter-argument is that China is already spending more than any other country on the green transition.

It is driving global investment into clean-energy technologies, which, as a result, are being rolled out around the world at rates unimaginable just a decade ago. Chinese money props up every stage of the clean-energy supply chain. Between 2018 and 2023 global investment in the refineries and factories that turn raw materials into wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs) and other green technologies came to $378bn, according to BloombergNEF, a research firm.

Nearly 90% of that came from China (see chart 1). Thanks to these investments, China produces far more clean-energy equipment than any other country. Its companies manufacture enough lithium-ion batteries (which are used to power EVs) to satisfy the whole of global demand.

Eight in ten of the world’s solar panels are made in China, according to the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental body. By building whopping economies of scale and competing with each other fiercely, Chinese companies have slashed costs. China is not only supplying