00:00China directed more than $130 billion in clean technology and investment to emerging markets in 2025.
00:09And that's by far the largest contribution to carbon dioxide reduction of any country.
00:15And it is almost as much as the $137 billion that wealthy nations reported providing to poorer ones under climate
00:24finance pledges two years ago.
00:26Now, the figures are not directly comparable, but analysts say it illustrates the scale at which China is shaping the
00:34energy transition in less well-off countries.
00:38Once deployed, China's exports will help the global south avoid more than 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
00:48And that figure is expected to jump to 337 million tons when this year's exports are included and makes it
00:56close to the annual emissions of Australia that they'll be saving.
01:00China's manufacturing scale is also helping to make renewable energy a lot more affordable.
01:06Two-thirds of its solar panel and cell exports went to emerging markets in 2025.
01:11Pakistan, for example, imported 17 gigawatts worth of solar from China last year as it looks to cut emissions and
01:19increase its use of cheap, reliable power.
01:22And to put that number in context, that's slightly more insulations than Germany did in that same year.
01:28And in terms of global impact, China's wind and solar exports reduced carbon dioxide emissions by around 4 billion tons
01:37between 2021 and 2025.
01:41Fossil fuels remain the largest source of global carbon emissions, but China's reliance on them as an energy source is
01:48being reduced by its investment in renewable technology.
01:52Earlier this year, coal generated less than 50 percent of China's electricity for the first time, and its carbon emissions
02:00in the third quarter were down more than 3 percent, the biggest quarterly drop since the pandemic.
02:06Benjamin Horton is Dean of the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong.
02:14So what we needed was to find a solution that was affordable, and China producing around 80 percent of solar
02:22electricity, about 70 percent of electricity vehicles.
02:27And this scale has driven down prices and made technologies that were once far too expensive, now available at a
02:35much cheaper cost around the world.
02:37So now renewable energies, not only are they the moral choice, they're also the economic choice, because at the same
02:45time as renewables getting much cheaper,
02:48we've had the problems with petroleum associated with the Straits of Hormuz, making petroleum-based products much, much more expensive.
02:56Yes, China directed over $130 billion in clean technology and investment to the developing world last year.
03:05How significant is that figure?
03:08Well, it is significant.
03:11They estimate that it's the equivalent of the amount of carbon being put in the atmosphere of around 400 billion
03:21tonnes,
03:22and that's equivalent to the annual emissions of France.
03:27But it's also really important where that is going.
03:31These green technologies are going to the developing nations in the global south, the most rapidly emerging nations.
03:39So as they emerge and as they try and develop, they are now using renewable energy rather than using petroleum
03:48-based source.
03:48So as they develop into the future, as they require more energy, they will keep on returning.
03:55And again, we have this scale issue.
03:57The more that we seem to invest and the more that we seem to produce in renewable energy, the more
04:04the cost goes down.
04:05So what else can China and indeed other countries around the world do to accelerate the green transition in these
04:13emerging markets?
04:15Well, China has a pivotal role to play.
04:18For example, at COP31, it has a role to play in making sure that these green technologies are available to
04:25all.
04:26But it also has an important role to play because as a developing nation, it also has its own reliance
04:33on fossil fuels.
04:35So not only does it have to continue for the good of all to invest in green technology to make
04:41them cheaper and cheaper,
04:42but it also must move away from its own petroleum-based products, particularly coal.
04:48So hopefully as we move through over the next five to ten years,
04:51you can assume that China will continue to be the leader in solar, in wind, in battery technologies and electric
04:59vehicles.
04:59But hopefully we'll see other countries also joining in this fight to combat the climate problem.
05:06One issue is Western tariffs on Chinese clean energy products, particularly in the United States, parts of Europe.
05:14Could that actually slow down climate action?
05:19Yes, that obviously is a danger.
05:22Governments have legitimate concerns regarding jobs, industrial competition and relying, as I said, too heavily on one country.
05:31But I've returned back to maybe the moral argument again.
05:35Why are we doing this?
05:37We're not just doing this so China's economy can continue to grow.
05:41We're not just doing it for a cost-of-living crisis associated with fuel.
05:46We're doing it to solve the climate change problem.
05:49And that's the backbone of it all.
05:52Until we reduce our emissions, we won't have a reduction in the atmospheric or ocean temperatures.
05:58And therefore we won't have a reduction in these extreme events.
