In the race to embrace renewables, China is the unlikely global leader

Beijing has emerged as the new energy superpower at Cop30, but will this spur Europe to invest more and compete in the 'global south'?

- Poppy Sebag-Montefiore

For almost the past two decades, China has been the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Not only does it have half the world's coal-fired power stations, it is still approving plans for more. China's emissions also come from its huge production of cement and steel; its emissions from petrochemicals are rising. It has been responsible for carbon emissions elsewhere in the world too, financing the construction of coal-fired power stations from Pakistan to Indonesia, Serbia to Bangladesh.

But at this month's Cop30, the UN climate summit in Belém, China is able to flaunt another, somewhat contradictory title: the world's biggest user of renewable energy.