China has led nearly 300 green initiatives. Is it a climate leader?

(Edited and refined by Bai Kelei, with the assistance of AI translation.)

As the US further scales back its participation in global climate governance, China continues to expand its footprint. A new study found that China has led at least 291 international environmental governance initiatives since 2000. Information-sharing initiatives were the most common, while funding arrangements were the least common. However, the impact of these initiatives remains unclear.

The study published in June this year by Sun Yixian, a professor of sustainability governance at the University of Bath’s Department of Social and Policy Sciences, and his team is believed to be the first report to systematically map China’s international environmental initiatives.

Between 2000 and 2024, there were 291 active China-led initiatives. “China-led” refers to initiatives spearheaded by Chinese actors, extending beyond China’s borders, involving substantive action and addressing environmental issues.

After Donald Trump started his first term as US President in 2017, the US began retreating from its global climate leadership role. Even though his successor Joe Biden re-engaged in international cooperation, the level of participation fell again after Trump returned for his second term in 2025. Against this backdrop, there is renewed attention on how much leadership China can exercise in global environmental governance.

China’s expanding green footprint

Data from the study shows that China-led initiatives have risen significantly since 2010. Those involving non-state actors have increased particularly rapidly since 2015, mirroring China’s shift in overseas cooperation towards green development and its promotion of a green Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Between 2020 and 2024, China launched 30 initiatives.

Of the initiatives, information-sharing and dialogue accounted for the largest share at 102, while funding initiatives were the fewest at just six. Other types include capacity-building and training, research and scientific knowledge production and rule-making and standard-setting.

Information-sharing initiatives led by China in recent years include the “Initiative on Deepening Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation”, launched with Cambodia, Laos and other countries in 2024 to strengthen cross-border water cooperation. Funding initiatives include the “Kunming Biodiversity Fund”, to which China contributed 1.5 billion RMB (US$223.2 million) to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries.

By environmental issue, the three areas covered by the most initiatives are climate change, clean energy and water-related issues. Geographically, the US, Europe and Russia are the top three partners to co-lead international environmental governance with China. In the Global South, China’s environmental partners are concentrated in Brazil, India, South Africa and Southeast Asia.

The philosophy of knowledge sharing

The report found that China favours information-sharing initiatives in bilateral partnerships because they carry lower political and institutional costs. Its focus on knowledge-sharing and capacity-building also reflects an alternative vision of international leadership, rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy and centred on moral authority and credibility rather than material dominance.

Professor Sun told Lianhe Zaobao that China’s goal is not to establish a new set of rules, but rather to share its experience in areas such as technology and policy.

He said, “If influence is understood through traditional Western or more linear thinking, it may not fully explain why China engages in so much knowledge-sharing. There is an old Chinese saying: ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ Rather than offering a ready-made solution, it invites you to build your own model.”

Assessing the impact of initiatives

In 2024, Indonesian think tank, Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), signed a memorandum of understanding with the BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), one of the information-sharing initiatives mentioned in the study, which aims to provide a platform for green dialogue.

IESR CEO Fabby Tumiwa said that BRIGC could influence China’s climate policy direction and indirectly help advance Indonesia’s energy transition. He hopes to steer BRI investments away from coal and towards renewable energy to help Indonesia achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or earlier.

However, Tumiwa acknowledged that such initiatives inevitably have limitations. He said, “Agenda setting remains with China. Participation does not mean equal decision-making authority.” He believes the initiative’s value lies more in providing access to Chinese policymakers than in gaining specific projects.

To Tumiwa, whether China exercises global climate leadership depends not only on the number of initiatives it launches, but also on its own emissions-reduction efforts and the extent to which it advocates global climate action.

Is China a climate leader?

China has pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Tumiwa described China’s net-zero emission target as “ambitious”, but added that it could play a more proactive role internationally by pushing other countries to adopt stricter climate targets. He said, “Right now, China doesn’t really play that role.”

There is still debate over whether China has become a climate leader, and China itself remains relatively cautious about the label. Tumiwa noted that while China is the world’s largest builder of and investor in clean energy, it is also the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. He concluded, “China can be regarded as a global climate leader in certain respects, but is not unambiguously a climate leader overall.”

Sun from the University of Bath believes it is too narrow to view China’s role through the climate leader concept alone. He explained, “China is willing to lead, but leadership does not mean acting alone. It means working with partners to try, explore and put forward new solutions. Of course, China will play a very important role.”

On 21 August, Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse reported that according to those in the know, China is considering bidding to host the 33rd UN Climate Change Conference (COP33) in 2028, signalling its intention to play a greater leadership role in global climate governance. However, discussions remain at an early stage.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “中国主导近300项跨境环境倡议 能否撑起全球气候领导力？”.

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