China plays key role on climate change, may be looked to for additional leadership, COP30 president says

By Liz Lee

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has a very important role to play in tackling climate change and others may look to the Asian country for additional leadership in the field, COP30 President-Designate Andre Aranha Correa do Lago said on Thursday.

Asked about China’s potential role as the United States steps back from climate change efforts, Correa do Lago said China has been playing a big part in providing solutions for a significant number of years.

"We have to work harder with China because China has been able to give some fantastic answers to the fight against climate change," he told reporters in an online news briefing held by the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.

Since taking office last month, President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, clawed back American global climate finance and severed international climate partnerships.

Trump has also pulled the U.S. out of key U.N. climate change assessments, Reuters reported last week.

Correa do Lago, who is due to lead the COP30 annual global climate summit in Brazil in November, also praised China's solar panel push. The world's largest solar panel producer has ratcheted up production capacity after years of subsidies, keeping global prices low.

"They are doing their own thing, and their own thing is benefiting the rest of the world. Reducing the prices of solar panels is one of the most fantastic policies to expand renewable energy in developing countries," he said.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, additional reporting by Shi Bu; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Hugh Lawson)