Economic Interests Drive Chinese Climate Leadership Amid U.S. Retreat

Speaking to world leaders at Davos, He Lifeng invited other countries to “embrace the opportunities” of Chinese-made renewable energy technologies.

Source: By Dylan Baddour

January 21, 2026

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21012026/economic-interests-drive-chinese-climate-leadership-amid-u-s-retreat/?utm_source=InsideClimate+News&utm_campaign=cd17967840-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_01_24_11_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-cd17967840-330597778

China's Vice-Premier He Lifeng delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. Credit: Fabrice Coffrin/AFP via Getty Images

As the United States retreats from climate policy, China signaled its rising intent to lead a transition away from fossil fuels and toward Chinese-made renewable energy technologies in remarks to world leaders on Tuesday.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng cast China as a beacon of stability as he touted the economic potential of wind, solar and battery power.

“China has put in place the world’s largest renewable energy system and the most complete new-energy industrial chain,” He said. “We invite entreprises from all over the world to embrace the opportunities from the green and low-carbon transition, and work closely with China.”

For China, which emits more greenhouse gases, burns more coal and imports more oil than any country in the world, this energy transition isn’t all about climate. A global shift to low-carbon power also poses substantial economic benefits to China, the world’s top manufacturer of batteries, solar panels and electric cars.

As energy appetites grow quickly across developing countries, China hopes to move them onto its new systems of solar, wind and battery power rather than fossil fuel technologies and markets still dominated by the U.S.

“They see oil and gas as far too dependent on foreign powers,” said Steven Lewis, C.V. Starr transnational China fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. “They are building a fleet of electric vehicles and they’ve already made a big dent in their oil imports for that reason alone.”

China’s state-backed overseas investment program has also poured hundreds of billions of dollars into energy projects in developing countries around the world. Its investments in renewable energy sources overtook fossil fuels around 2023 for the first time since the program began in the early 2000s, according to reporting from Inside Climate News.

“China will pursue green development and share with the world the opportunities from green and low-carbon transition,” He said at Davos.

These sorts of economic forces are increasingly shaping the politics of the energy transition, rather than diplomatic discourse at international forums, said Li Shuo, China Climate Hub director at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“It is becoming less about what governments say and more about which companies are putting EVs on the road and solar panels on rooftops,” he said. “On that front, China’s lead is not only intact, but widening.”

China, home to 1.4 billion people, accounted for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2024. Its emissions plateaued in 2025, suggesting a possible peak after decades of steep growth. Last September, at a U.N. summit on climate change, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans to begin reducing overall emissions by 2030.

These and other steps position China to fill voids in energy transition leadership left by the U.S. and other Western countries.

Last year, U.S. president Donald Trump told the U.N. general assembly, “If you don’t get away from the green energy scam, your country is going to fail.”

Trump has also withdrawn the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Accords and from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, two global agreements to reduce carbon emissions.

China will work with all parties to “fully and effectively implement” those agreements, He said at Davos.

“They have the ability to use opportunities like the U.S. retreat in these sectors and these diplomatic arenas to their own advantage,” said Jackson Ewing, director of energy and climate policy at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. “They are taking these measures that have real climate importance, even if the drivers of those measures aren’t always primarily climate change.”