Former US Vice-President Al Gore has welcomed China's new willingness to exercise "unilateral leadership" on climate change, contrasting with bipartisan US alarm over Beijing's growing global influence. Speaking to the FT's Simon Mundy and Attracta Mooney, Gore highlighted a Chinese government document from July outlining a five-year strategy that explicitly pledges to "constructively lead the multilateral governance process" and enhance China's "guiding capacity" in global climate governance.

This marks a shift from China's previous stance of seeking leadership only as part of a "G2" partnership with the US, which underpinned the 2014 Obama-Xi Jinping bilateral pledge that paved the way for the Paris Agreement. With the US having withdrawn from the UN climate process under Donald Trump, Gore argues international collaboration will continue under Chinese impetus.

The shift is underpinned by China's clean energy boom. Research groups such as the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air suggest Chinese emissions may have entered long-term decline ahead of the 2030 peak target. Coal fell below half of power generation for the first time in H1 2026, while new energy vehicles hit 66 per cent market share last month. With firms like BYD dominating clean tech supply chains, China has a strong economic incentive to drive global decarbonisation.