Albanese Welcomes China’s Pledge to Cut Emissions but Urges Faster Coal Exit

Xi committed to absolute emission cuts and rapid green growth, but Albanese said China’s coal expansion risks locking in decades of pollution.

Waste coal is unloaded near an unauthorized steel factory in Inner Mongolia, China, on Nov. 3, 2016. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has cautiously welcomed Beijing’s new climate commitments, but said China must go further by halting the opening of new coal-fired power stations if it is serious about cutting emissions.

Speaking at a New York Times event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in the United States, Albanese said Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s announcement of absolute economy-wide emission cuts marked progress but fell short of what was needed.

“We’d like to see new coal-fired power plants not open,” he said.

Albanese added that China’s rapid growth in electric vehicles showed the pace of transformation was possible, but called for more decisive action on coal.

Xi Pledges Absolute Cuts by 2035

In a video address to the U.N. in New York, Xi committed China to cutting total greenhouse gas emissions by between 7 and 10 percent by 2035.

It is the first time Beijing has set an absolute reduction target, rather than a pledge linked to intensity or economic output.

Xi also plans to expand wind, solar, and hydropower to cover more than 30 percent of the power system over the next decade, and to make “new energy vehicles the mainstream” of the auto market.

His remarks came just before Albanese outlined Australia’s own new target to the U.N., committing to reduce emissions by between 62 and 70 percent by 2035.

That pledge places Australia ahead of Japan, Canada, and New Zealand, and is broadly in line with the European Union’s planned cut of 66 to 72 percent.

Coal Expansion Clouds Green Gains

Despite its world-leading deployment of renewable energy, China’s continued investment in coal remains a sticking point.

James Gorrie, author of “The China Crisis,” said Beijing’s energy policy is marked by contradictions: it dominates global green technology but continues to expand coal.

“No other nation can match its output of solar panels, wind generators, batteries, and other renewable technology,” Gorrie wrote in an opinion piece for The Epoch Times.

“Within just five months of 2025, China added enough new renewable capacity to power countries the size of Poland or Turkey. With direction from Beijing, that trajectory is likely to continue.”

But coal remains the foundation of China’s energy security.

“Weather is a huge factor, and energy uncertainty is something no developed nation can afford,” Gorrie said.

China approved 66.7 gigawatts of new coal capacity in 2024, and began building 94.5 GW more—a ten-year high. Nearly 93 percent of global coal plant construction starts last year were in China.

China also imported a record 542.7 million tonnes of coal in 2024 and has resumed construction on several suspended projects.

With coal plants typically running for up to 60 years, analysts say Beijing has no intention of moving away from coal as its dominant power source anytime soon.