China announces 2035 emissions-cut target at UN climate summit

China announced its first national emissions-cut target at the United Nations climate summit on Wednesday, pledging to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035. The move, announced by President Xi Jinping, places the world’s largest emitter at the forefront of intensified climate action as hundreds of leaders gather to confront extreme weather and rising temperatures.

The high-level gathering, convened by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, drew more than 100 nations representing about two-thirds of global emissions as leaders outlined plans to curb emissions from coal, oil and natural gas. China accounts for more than 31% of global CO2 emissions, underscoring the scale of commitments being urged ahead of negotiations in Brazil about six weeks away.

Xi’s remarks included concrete steps: China would increase its wind and solar power sixfold from 2020 levels, advance pollution-free vehicles to the mainstream and “basically establish a climate-adaptive society.” Europe followed with its own plan, though details were less explicit; Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said member states expect cuts in the roughly 66% to 72% range and will formally submit their plan before the November negotiations.

Reaction was cautious. Jake Schmidt, senior strategic director for international climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, welcomed the direction but said the targets will not be enough to keep the world from dangerous climate impacts. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, hosting the talks, said no country is safe from climate change and urged shared responsibility. U.N. Secretary-General Guterres warned that science demands action, the law requires it and the economics compel it. Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine told delegates the losses from rising seas are already threatening hospitals and schools, urging leaders to wake up to the dangers. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described floods that have affected millions as a stark reminder of urgency. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called this a decisive decade for climate action and stressed that Australia is not alone.

Climate scientists at the summit warned that every tenth of a degree of warming raises the risk of floods, wildfires, heat waves and other disasters. Johan Rockström, a leading climate scientist, said the world is dangerously close to triggering irreversible change if action stalls. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, noted that even small increases in warming have outsized impacts on extreme events.

Under the Paris agreement of 2015, 195 nations are expected to submit new five-year plans detailing how they will curb emissions from fossil fuels. U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said China’s plan signals that the future global economy will run on clean energy and that stronger, faster climate action should yield cleaner air, cheaper energy and better health. Lula also said he invited both Donald Trump and Xi to the November negotiations, underscoring the importance of science-led dialogue in the talks. The United States had submitted its plan under President Biden; the Trump administration has distanced itself from that plan. The world has warmed about 1.3 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, with the Paris target aiming to hold warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal scientists say is increasingly difficult to reach.

Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia and chair of The Elders, said China’s latest climate target is too timid given the country’s record on clean energy. As talks move toward substantive commitments in Brazil, scientists urged rapid ambition to align policy with what the science requires.