BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- In 2026, the intensifying fallout of global climate change -- manifesting in catastrophic flooding, rampant wildfires, and record heatwaves -- reaffirms the imperative for immediate, coordinated global action.
With global climate tipping points looming, the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), set to kick off on Monday in Antalya, Türkiye, will offer a new opportunity for the international community to renew momentum for more effective global climate cooperation.
Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has over the years stayed committed to advancing ecological protection and green transition domestically, and promoting international climate cooperation, making major global contributions to the world's fight against what many regard as an existential threat to humanity.
"LIKE WE PROTECT OUR EYES"
"We should protect the environment like we protect our eyes." This evocative principle -- voiced on various occasions by Xi -- frames ecological conservation not merely as a policy choice, but as a vital imperative drawn directly from his own experiences.
"Over four decades ago, I lived and worked for many years in a small village on the Loess Plateau in western China," Xi recalled in reply to a letter from student representatives of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate in 2020.
Back then, the ecology and environment there was seriously damaged due to over-development, and the local people were trapped in poverty as a result. That experience has taught him that man and nature are a community of life and that the damage done to nature will ultimately hurt humanity.
An avid reader of Chinese classics, Xi has also been deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophy that views man as an integral part of nature. "All beings flourish when they live in harmony and receive nourishment from nature," he has said.
This conviction underpins the signature environmental doctrine that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," which Xi first introduced in 2005 while serving as Party chief of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Upon becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2012, Xi made ecological conservation a national priority.
For Xi, ecological conservation requires not only a profound shift in development philosophy, but also robust institutional safeguards. As he has put it, "Eco-environmental protection relies on laws and regulations."
At his direction, environmental performance has become a key criterion for evaluating officials, while environmental inspections have reinforced local governments' accountability for fulfilling their environmental responsibilities. Together, these measures have helped steer China's economic growth toward a more resource-efficient and sustainable path.
Since 2012, China has sustained a 6 percent average annual economic growth rate while capping an average energy consumption increase to just 3.3 percent. This structural decoupling yielded a 26.1 percent cumulative decline in energy intensity, marking one of the steepest efficiency gains globally.
Xi has also led by example in promoting environmental protection and green development. Since becoming China's top leader, he has personally participated in tree-planting activities in Beijing for 14 consecutive years.
Forests have the capacity to conserve water, bring in economic benefits, and boost grain production, and now serve well as a carbon sink, he has noted.
Today, China has expanded its forest coverage to over 25 percent of its land area, planting trees across an area roughly 1.7 times the size of California since 2012. The annual carbon-sink capacity of China's forests and grassland has exceeded 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.
Fuad Gani, vice director of the Graduate School of Sustainable Development at the University of Indonesia, said that China's ecological conservation philosophy stands out for its ability to translate environmental goals into long-term policies and governance frameworks.
"It is one of China's most valuable contributions to advancing green transformation on the global stage," he said.
"SOMETHING WE MUST DO OURSELVES"
Balancing economic growth with green development remains a challenge for economies worldwide, especially emerging markets seeking to meet development needs while pursuing environmental sustainability.
In Xi's view, economic growth and the green transition are not opposing forces, but complementary goals. This philosophy is captured in his defining doctrine -- "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
Achieving China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, Xi has stressed, "is not something that others ask us to do, but something we must do ourselves."
Under his leadership, China has effectively aligned emissions reduction with technological innovation, industrial upgrading and energy security, turning the green transition into an increasingly important driver of high-quality development.
As early as 2014, when conventional gasoline-powered vehicles still dominated China's roads, Xi recognized the enormous potential of new energy vehicles (NEVs). During an inspection tour of SAIC Motor, a major Chinese carmaker, Xi depicted developing NEVs as the only way for China to move from a major automobile country to an automobile powerhouse.
In the following decade, the president has demonstrated consistent support for electric cars, visiting automotive companies, touring laboratories, and showing great interest in trying new home-developed models. China's NEV industry has since grown rapidly, emerging as a flagship of the country's technology-intensive manufacturing sector.
Beyond the NEV sector, China has also built the world's largest and most comprehensive clean energy industrial chain, with green and low-carbon industries emerging as an important engine of economic growth.
The growing exports of the "new three" -- photovoltaic products, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles -- are a testament to China's successful shift toward innovation-driven manufacturing. Beyond its own borders, China is now channeling this green innovation momentum into regional cooperation.
China will continue to work with fellow Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries to increase the installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power each by 10 million kilowatts, and nurture more green industry talents through China-SCO cooperation, said Xi at the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO this September.
China's exports of solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries this year will help the world to avoid 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a recent analysis by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The development exemplifies China's strategic push to cultivate "new quality productive forces" -- a policy concept first articulated by Xi in 2023 to drive high-tech innovation and sustainable economic modernization. "Green development," as Xi once put it, "is the defining feature of high-quality development, and new quality productive forces are green in nature."
China has turned the challenges of addressing climate change into opportunities for technological innovation, industrial upgrading and high-quality economic development, said Wang Lei, a professor at the School of Government of Beijing Normal University.
"Guided by the goals of reducing carbon emissions and strengthening climate resilience, the country has leveraged policy guidance, market incentives and open innovation to drive the transformation of energy, industry, transportation and construction," he added.
"EXTREME RESOLUTIONS"
Deeply committed to joining world nations to build a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi has repeatedly called on the international community to strengthen cooperation in addressing climate change and actively advanced the building of a fair and equitable global climate governance system for win-win cooperation.
"Supreme resources spring from extreme resolutions," Xi said, invoking a perceptive line from French writer Victor Hugo's Les Miserables during his address to the historic 2015 Paris climate change conference.
During the summit, Xi put forward important ideas and proposals and worked actively to build consensus among parties, making an indispensable contribution to the eventual adoption of the Paris Agreement.
At a special ceremony on Sept. 3, 2016, Xi solemnly handed over China's instrument of joining the Paris Agreement to then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"Had not been President Xi Jinping's initiative, we would not have the Paris Agreement on climate change even now," Ban said in a 2021 interview with Xinhua.
In response to the grave challenge of climate change, China has taken on its international responsibilities with what Xi described as "extreme resolutions." At a virtual UN gathering in 2020, Xi announced that China would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. In 2021, he pledged that China would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.
In recent years, some developed countries, particularly those in the West, have backtracked on their climate commitments, undermining global climate governance. Against this backdrop, Xi announced China's 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions in 2025, including a commitment to reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7-10 percent from peak levels and to raise the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to more than 30 percent by 2035.
For the first time, China committed to absolute emissions reduction targets covering all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases, providing much-needed certainty and stability for global climate governance.
Xi has also emphasized the need to uphold fairness and equity and fully respect developing countries' right to development as the world pursues a green transition.
"The transition should serve to narrow rather than widen the North-South gap," he said, urging developed countries to take the lead in fulfilling emissions reduction obligations and provide more financial and technological support to developing countries.
Under Xi's leadership, China has been striving to strengthen South-South cooperation on climate change. Xi has proposed the establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition and advocated building a green BRICS partnership.
Through these target-driven initiatives, China seeks to deepen cooperation in clean energy, green technology and green industrial development, while helping developing countries strengthen their capacity to address climate change.
"The Earth is our one and only home," Xi has said. "To scale up efforts to address climate change and promote sustainable development bears on the future of humanity."■
