Secure \u00b7 Tax deductible \u00b7 Takes 45 Seconds<\/p>\n
Secure \u00b7 Tax deductible \u00b7 Takes 45 Seconds<\/p>\n
It may come as no surprise, then, that other world leaders took barely veiled swipes at Trump at the COP30 climate talks<\/a> last month. Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement and a longtime Costa Rican diplomat, summed up a common sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cCiao, bambino! You want to leave, leave,\u201d she said before a crowd of reporters, using an Italian phrase that translates \u201cbye-bye, little boy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n These stark shifts in the U.S. position on climate change, which President Donald Trump has called a \u201choax\u201d and \u201ccon job,\u201d are only the latest and most visible signs of a deeper shift underway. Historically, the U.S. and other wealthy, high-emitting nations have been cast as the primary drivers of climate action, both because of their outsize responsibility for the crisis and because of the greater resources at their disposal. Over the past decade, however, the hopes that developed countries will prioritize financing both the global energy transition and adaptation measures to protect the world\u2019s most vulnerable countries have been dashed \u2014 in part by rightward lurches in domestic politics, external crises like Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and revolts by wealthy-country voters over cost-of-living concerns.<\/p>\n The resulting message to developing countries has been unmistakable: Help is not on the way.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Who will finance global climate solutions? Not the West.<\/a><\/p>\n In the vacuum left behind, a different engine of global climate action has emerged, one not political or diplomatic but industrial. A growing marketplace of green technologies \u2014 primarily solar, wind, and batteries \u2014 has made the adoption of renewable energy far faster and more cost-effective than almost anyone predicted. The world has dramatically exceeded expectations for solar power generation in particular, producing roughly 8 times more last year<\/a> than in 2015, when the Paris Agreement was signed.<\/p>\n China is largely responsible for the breakneck pace of clean energy growth. It now produces about 60 percent of the world\u2019s wind turbines and 80 percent of solar panels. In the first half of 2025, the country added more than twice as much new solar capacity as the rest of the world combined. As a result of these Chinese-led global energy market changes and other countries\u2019 Paris Agreement pledges, the world is now on a path to see 2.3 to 2.5 degrees Celsius<\/a> (4.1 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming by 2100, compared to preindustrial temperatures, far lower than the roughly 5 degrees C (9 degrees F) projections<\/a> expected just 10 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n These policies can be viewed as a symbol of global cooperation on climate change, but for Chinese leadership, the motivation is primarily economic. That, experts say, may be why they\u2019re working. China\u2019s policies are driving much of the rest of the world\u2019s renewable energy growth. As the cost of solar panels and wind turbines drops year over year, it is enabling other countries, especially in the Global South, to choose cleaner sources of electricity over fossil fuels \u2014 and also to purchase some of the world\u2019s cheapest mass-produced electric vehicles. Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia are all expected to see massive increases in solar deployment<\/a> in the next few years, thanks to their partnerships with Chinese firms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChina is going to, over time, create a new narrative and be a much more important driver for global climate action,\u201d said Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Shuo said that the politics-and-rhetoric-driven approach to solving climate change favored by wealthy countries has proved unreliable and largely failed. In its place, a Chinese-style approach that aligns countries\u2019 economic agendas with decarbonization will prove to be more successful, he predicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read Next<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As Trump champions fossil fuels, the world is betting on renewable energy<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, many countries have begun reorganizing their diplomatic and economic relationships in ways that no longer assume American leadership. That shift accelerated this year in part due to Trump\u2019s decisions to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, to impose tariffs on U.S. allies, and more broadly, to slink away into self-imposed isolation. European countries facing punishing tariffs have looked to deepen trade relationships with China<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, and other<\/a> Asian countries<\/a>. The EU\u2019s new carbon border tax, which applies levies to imports from outside the bloc, will take effect in January. The move was once expected to trigger conflict between the EU and U.S., but is now proceeding without outright support \u2014 or strong opposition<\/a> \u2014 from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n African countries, too, are asserting leadership. The continent hosted its own climate summit earlier this year, pledging to raise $50 billion to promote at least 1,000 locally led solutions<\/a> in energy, agriculture, water, transport, and resilience by 2030. \u201cThe continent has moved the conversation from crisis to opportunity, from aid to investment, and from external prescription to African-led,\u201d said Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission. \u201cWe have embraced the powerful truth [that] Africa is not a passive recipient of climate solutions, but the actor and architect of these solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The entire world was ready to reduce shipping emissions. Then Trump stepped in.<\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. void has also allowed China to throw more weight around in international climate negotiations. Although Chinese leadership remained cautious and reserved in the negotiation halls in Bel\u00e9m, the country pushed its agenda on one issue in particular: trade. Since China has invested heavily in renewable energy technology, tariffs on its products could hinder not only its own economic growth but also the world\u2019s energy transition. As a result the final agreement at COP30, which like all other United Nations climate agreements is ultimately non-binding, included language stipulating that unilateral trade measures like tariffs \u201cshould not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.\u201d<\/p>\n Calling out tariffs on the first page of the final decision at COP30 would not have been possible if negotiators for the United States had been present, according to Shuo. \u201cChina was able to force this issue on the agenda,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Shuo added that other countries are still feeling the gravitational pull of U.S. policies, even as the Trump administration sat out climate talks this year. In Bel\u00e9m last month, the United States\u2019 opposition to the International Maritime Organization\u2019s carbon framework influenced conversations about structuring rules for decarbonizing the shipping industry. And knowing that the U.S. wouldn\u2019t contribute to aid funds<\/a> shaped climate finance agreements.<\/p>\n In the years to come, though, those pressures may very well fade. As the world pivots in response to a U.S. absence, it may find it has more to gain than expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the year comes to a close, 2025 looks like a turning point in the world\u2019s fight against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-344385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Presidents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2185449733.jpg\")
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