@Joncash2@lemmy.ml

No, I don’t say, “at what cost” … I say the same as in my initial comment: China is far away from any leadership position when it comes to climate change. You need to read a bit more from your own post than just the headline:

While China appears to be outperforming on its peak emissions pledge, some sectors are moving in the opposite direction. Transport emissions fell by five per cent in Q3, but plastics and chemical production saw a 10 per cent rise. China is also on track to miss its 2020–25 goal of cutting carbon intensity — emissions per unit of GDP — meaning steeper reductions will be required …

In September, China announced its new 2035 target: cutting total greenhouse gas emissions by 7–10 per cent from their peak. Experts say the target is modest …

Your linked report contains practically the same content as mine, it’s just that the title appears to be a bit more positive; but that’s unjustified. China is not on track, let alone in a leadership position. Just read the links in my previous comment above.

[Edit typo.]

We could all hope that China would lead the world in climate change as the country is the world’s biggest polluter (with coal consumption still on the rise as I wrote just in another thread).

However, China’s is far away of any leadership when it comes to reduce carbon emission.

The scientists from the Climate Actions Tracker call China’s recent announcement to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035 as ‘disappointing’ as China - given the country’s size and economy - would need to cut emissions by around 30% for the world to be on track to the Paris goal.

According to the scientists, no country is on track to Paris, but while the EU and Brazil’s climate actions are insufficient, China and India’s are considered highly insufficient.

So it doesn’t look like leadership.

That leads the UK in the wrong direction.

Contrary to that, the EU is set to ban Chinese universities from half of Horizon Europe, including health care and defense research in the 2026-27 research programme. Here is a paywalled report on it or the original EU Horizon draft paper (opens pdf) stating that, “Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions in any capacity.”

In 2024, Spain exported USD 7.7 billion to China, while Spain imported USD 46.6 billion from China (according to the Comtrade database). This resulted in a trade deficit of USD 39.9 billion, slightly higher that in 2023 and the highest in Spain’s trade history with China.

Beijing apparently applies the same playbook with Spain as with all other countries.

What does Madrid strengthen?

Carbon Brief made its analysis based on emission data by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, just read the report. This data is skewed and highly biased.