The Chinese leader also urged all parties to take stronger actions to “jointly tackle the climate challenge”, and said his country would “speed up the green and low-carbon energy transition, vigorously develop renewable energy, and plan and build large wind and photovoltaic power stations”. China is the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key player at Cop26, the latest round of talks aimed at strengthening the fight against global heating, which began on Sunday. Despite this, Xi, who has not left China since 2020 amid the Covid pandemic, had not been expected to attend the conference in person.
He was the only world leader so far to deliver remarks to the conference in written form, although another significant no-show – Russia’s Vladimir Putin – is expected to send a video message to a related UN conference on forestry and land use.
