By: ZHAO Qian -CMG Africa Journalist
At the recent United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), China reaffirmed its commitment to building an environmental governance system that delivers win-win outcomes. This commitment was not merely rhetorical but backed by sustained climate actions at home and abroad. At a time when many countries are struggling to meet, or even abandoning their climate promises, China offers a counterpoint: that progress can still be made through long-term planning and concrete measures.
China’s environmental governance is underpinned by a development philosophy that sees lucid waters and lush mountains as invaluable assets. Guided by this vision, China has elevated environmental protection to a national priority. Investment in pollution control has reached US$128.64 billion in 2022, a 6.7-fold increase compared with 2001. Afforestation efforts have steadily increased the national forest coverage rate to over 25% in 2024. Meanwhile, air quality, water quality and biodiversity have all shown continuous improvements. These gains did not occur by chance. They are the result of a governance model that emphasizes continuity, coherence, and determination.
Emission reduction is another area where this model is particularly evident. As one of the core pillars of addressing climate change, mitigation has been firmly embedded in China’s broader development strategy. In the country’s blueprint for the next five years, green transition is placed on equal footing with industrial modernization and technological innovation. Back in 2020, China announced its goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. These goals, which seemed ambitious at the time, have become increasingly attainable as China doubles down its expansion of renewable energy, including wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power. China is now the world’s largest investor in clean energy and boasts the biggest EV market globally.
Beyond its domestic trajectory, China has positioned itself as an active participant in multilateral climate governance, consistently supporting and implementing established climate agreements. In September 2025, China updated its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the second time, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7%-10% from peak levels, and increasing the share of non-fossil fuels to more than 30%.
For China, environmental governance is never a one-man race. With a firm belief in common prosperity and shared development, China recognizes that countries in the Global South are the most vulnerable to climate impacts. Between 2016 to 2024, China provided and mobilized more than US$24.5 billion in climate finance to support climate actions in other developing countries despite having no formal obligation to do so under current UN climate mechanisms.
The Kunming Biodiversity Fund, launched in 2024, is one of China’s most recent actions to enhance biodiversity in developing countries. During UNEA-7, UNEP announced the fund’s latest developments. To date, nine “small and beautiful” projects are already underway across 15 developing countries in six continents, with an additional 22 projects approved to benefit 34 countries.
African countries have been China’s key partners in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Under frameworks such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), cooperation goes beyond financial aid, encompassing technology transfer, institutional cooperation, and hands-on project implementation. From the Garissa Solar Power Plant in Kenya, which cuts carbon emissions by tens of thousands of tons, to the “African Solar Belt” program delivering solar power to tens of thousands of households; from training workshops for African officials, to joint research on biodiversity and drought-resistant crops these efforts demonstrate China’s commitment to helping its partners build climate resilience and to fostering a more inclusive, mutually beneficial environmental governance framework.
Taken together, China’s domestic initiatives and international partnerships underscore a broader principle: effective environmental governance requires long-term vision, multilateral cooperation, and above all, concrete implementation. In a fragmented global climate landscape, China’s experience suggests that responsibility and development can go hand in hand, and that meaningful progress, while difficult, remains within reach.