{"id":392120,"date":"2025-11-20T11:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/392120\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T11:42:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:42:20","slug":"china-is-not-just-talking-its-walking-the-walk-say-green-industry-leaders-on-why-the-eastern-superpower-is-a-new-leader-in-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/392120\/","title":{"rendered":"China \u2018is not just talking, it’s walking the walk,\u2019 say green industry leaders on why the eastern superpower is a new leader in climate action"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, the U.S. did not send a delegation to COP<\/a>\u2014the UN conference where countries roll out action plans to mitigate climate change. This comes after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement<\/a> in January, calling it \u2018unfair\u2019 and \u2018one-sided\u2019\u2014and removing the world\u2019s largest historical emitter from the fight against climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But green industry leaders say this doesn\u2019t mean that climate diplomacy is dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s a vacuum, something or someone will fill it. In the climate leadership space, we now see many countries from the Global South stepping up,\u201d said Faroze Nadar, the executive director of the UN Global Compact Network Malaysia and Brunei, at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the ongoing COP30 in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, noting that many prominent pavilions were from Asian countries<\/a>, with China having an especially large presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate diplomacy is now being pushed very much by the Chinese,\u201d Nadar said.<\/p>\n

Fellow panelists agreed, adding that while China is stepping up in global climate talks, it is also taking concrete climate actions.<\/p>\n

\u201c(China) is not just talking, it\u2019s walking the walk,\u201d said Ying Staton, the Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President for Asia Pacific at Plastic Energy.<\/p>\n

The eastern superpower has been driving the global energy transition, by expanding production and driving down the cost of renewables, Staton added. It produces 90% of the world\u2019s solar panels, 60% of wind turbines, 85% of battery cells, and dominates in rare earth metals.<\/p>\n

Yet Trump\u2019s decision to pull back has not fully eroded the influence of the U.S. at climate talks, as a battalion of state and local representatives\u2014including California governor Gavin Newsom<\/a>\u2014made the trip to Brazil instead.<\/p>\n

\u201c(This shows that) there are so many policy levers that you can pull, and often it\u2019s the local municipal governments who have the more direct levers,\u201d Staton said.<\/p>\n

And though governments have a role to play, so do businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new economy is going to build on the climate movement, so there is business sense in being part (of it),\u201d said Nadar. \u201cAnd businesses are the easiest stakeholders to work with, because they\u2019re driven by a common language of profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, the UN Global Compact Network Malaysia and Brunei, which Nadar helms, often works with Sarawak Energy\u2014Malaysia\u2019s largest green energy producer\u2014on corporate sustainability efforts, he said.<\/p>\n

Investing in climate action should also be framed as a strategic advantage to companies, rather than a cost. After all, the green premium\u2014or the added cost companies pay for sustainability\u2014is only temporary, Staton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you build and the more you scale, the cheaper these solutions become, and that\u2019s how you drive the green premium to zero,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you look at renewable energy 20 years ago, there was a green premium\u2014there isn\u2019t one today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiying Wang, the President & CEO of Greater China, SEA and India at Envac AB, echoed Staton\u2019s sentiments, adding that scale is key. Green technology and infrastructure need scale, so that businesses can \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and invest in them without losing profitability, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, the U.S. did not send a delegation to COP\u2014the UN conference where countries roll…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":392121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10109,746,186380,50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-392120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-fortune-innovation-forum","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115581848716536293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}