President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has told CNN that China needs to demonstrate a clear climate plan if they are to be a global leader.
Speaking to Christiane Amanpour from the COP26 summit in Glasgow, von der Leyen said that it is “very important that they [China] step up and show what they are going to do.”
“If we look at China, I think we should remind them that they have the ambition of global leadership. That should match with global climate leadership,” von der Leyen said.
Neither Chinese President Xi or Russian President Vladimir Putin -- leaders of two of the biggest global greenhouse gas emitters -- are attending the summit.
For the world to achieve its climate goals, Von der Leyen told Amanpour that global leaders must come together:
“We have to get everyone on board. So what physical presence at the G20 and at COP26 is concerned, I highly appreciate for example that Prime Minister Modi from India did come. This is a very important sign that he is engaging. We would have liked to see China and Russia being here.”
“Indeed for Russia, if they want to have a future proof economy, they have to rapidly engage in modernizing their economy and modernizing means decarbonizing,” she said.
“Our experience in the European Union is that you can prosper while cutting emissions.”