China President to address Glasgow COP26 in written statement
Chinese President, Xi Jinping will address the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday in the form of a written statement, according to an official schedule.
His statement will be uploaded to the official conference website following addresses by world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron of France.
According to the list of speakers released by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, “President Xi is the only leader to address the first Part of the High-Level Segment for Heads of State and Government in a written statement.”
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 warming, which got underway on Sunday.
However, Xi, who has not left China since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, had not been expected to attend the conference in person.
China confirmed to the United Nations last week that it would bring its emissions to a peak before 2030 and cut them to net zero by 2060. It also promised to raise total wind and solar power generation capacity to 1,200 gigawatts by 2030 in order to reach its goals.
However, climate watchers were hoping for new pledges to cap energy consumption and an earlier start to reducing the use of coal, currently scheduled to begin in 2026.
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