Juno News - November 11, 2025


World's TOP POLLUTER China parades Xi Jinping propaganda at COP30 & MORE!


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

130.37114

Word Count

1,336

Sentence Count

73

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Day 1 of the Beijing-hosted COP30 climate summit, and so far, China has stolen the show. Willie Tamten catches up with Canadian Environment Minister Stephen Gebbia and Environment Minister Julia de Boosin, and speaks to UK Environment Minister Ed Miliband.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'm Willie Tamten with True North, here for day one of the Bellem-hosted COP30 climate conference.
00:00:06.540 And today, so far, it seems like China has stolen the show.
00:00:10.300 And, of course, Canada's delegation is yet to completely arrive with Minister,
00:00:14.260 former Environment Minister Stephen Goebbels, and current Environment Minister Julia de Boosin,
00:00:19.240 likely to come tomorrow morning.
00:00:21.120 So for day two, I'll catch you up if I get a chance to speak with them, hopefully.
00:00:24.960 Also, as well, I got the lucky chance to speak to the UK Environment and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband,
00:00:31.900 who I luckily catched up with very briefly after his BBC interview.
00:00:35.920 And, of course, he gave me some thoughts on his relationship with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
00:00:40.520 Here's more on that.
00:00:41.460 What are your thoughts on Mark Carney's climate leadership?
00:00:43.560 I think Mark Carney's a great guy.
00:00:45.620 He's a good friend of mine.
00:00:47.480 And I believe he's a really important climate leader.
00:00:49.760 Are you still in touch with him?
00:00:50.960 Are you guys looking forward to getting closer in the future?
00:00:53.180 Absolutely.
00:00:53.580 Specifically on climate in the future.
00:00:55.720 Now, for those who don't know, Ed Miliband is actually the son of a Marxist
00:00:59.300 and someone who has been a champion of the climate craziness for a long time.
00:01:04.340 As Labour Minister now and previously in the past,
00:01:07.040 he has been an endorser of many net-zero climate policies,
00:01:10.160 which he and Mark Carney share throughout their friendship.
00:01:12.900 And, of course, we remember that Mark Carney was the former governor of the Bank of England,
00:01:18.660 which Liz Truss accused him of ruining her mandate and England's economy
00:01:24.380 based on his net-zero policies he endorsed while he was the head of the bank.
00:01:29.780 And, of course, Liz Truss had reiterated that point multiple times,
00:01:33.500 as well as to Juno News' own Kean Bexte earlier this year.
00:01:38.140 Now, without doubt, China's presence has been well-pronounced at the conference here today,
00:01:41.720 of course, partially due to the fact that there is great U.S. absence.
00:01:45.360 While the U.S. White House isn't sending anyone,
00:01:47.860 there are a few states and groups that are representing the U.S. on lower-level terms here, present today.
00:01:53.780 However, the Chinese pavilion standing behind me, as you can see,
00:01:58.340 had been full with people all day long,
00:02:00.680 especially in the morning when 75% of the building lacked air conditioning.
00:02:04.760 And, of course, the fans they had on display and other goodies
00:02:07.620 kept all the fans, ironically, attracted onto the pavilion.
00:02:13.240 So, of course, the pavilion itself hosts a number of talks
00:02:16.480 endorsing China's climate policies and Xi Jinping's legacy.
00:02:20.820 There's a few books and propaganda promos.
00:02:23.780 And I also had a chance to speak to an expert from a climate consulting firm
00:02:28.120 who gave me some highlights into both the Canada-China relationship
00:02:32.060 and China's record on the climate.
00:02:35.320 What did you say about China's track record on the environment
00:02:38.420 and specifically its energy?
00:02:40.920 If we look at China's track record on energy transition and climate change,
00:02:47.900 First, China has been rather consistent to order its international energy and climate commitments.
00:02:59.720 Since the country joined the Kyoto Protocol,
00:03:04.340 China's climate ambition keeps rising.
00:03:08.140 Meanwhile, when we look at the fact China is the world's largest clean energy manufacturing economy
00:03:17.840 as well as the largest renewable market in the world,
00:03:22.500 China could do much more to surprise coal consumption growth domestically
00:03:31.440 and also help other parts of the world to combat climate change,
00:03:39.660 especially in the global south.
00:03:42.120 So let's talk about coal.
00:03:43.800 What do you make of China's continued use of coal-fired power plants
00:03:47.500 and its expansion or building of coal power plants?
00:03:50.420 How would you rate China's record on that?
00:03:53.040 If we look at China's record on coal,
00:03:57.740 it's a rather complicated story.
00:04:00.420 On the one hand, coal's share in China's primary energy consumption
00:04:07.880 and electricity generation keeps declining.
00:04:13.560 Now, coal only accounts for slightly more than half of China's primary energy consumption,
00:04:22.140 down from near 80 percent more than 10 years ago.
00:04:30.420 But if we look at how China might be able to build a new type of energy and power system,
00:04:43.100 China can certainly do much more to further expand its renewable deployment,
00:04:51.080 especially solar PV and wind power.
00:04:55.040 So in this regard, I personally believe in the next five-year plan period between 2026 and 2030,
00:05:08.760 China needed to double down its efforts.
00:05:11.600 China needed to double down its efforts to surprise coal consumption growth,
00:05:19.460 to peak national coal consumption,
00:05:23.400 as well as national carbon dioxide emissions.
00:05:28.180 By achieving that as early as possible,
00:05:33.360 at as low level as possible,
00:05:36.580 China could contribute to global efforts to honor the Paris Agreement goal.
00:05:45.400 How would you compare Canada's efforts to combat climate change supposedly to China's efforts?
00:05:50.580 Specifically, Canada's embraced a carbon tax policy for nearly a decade
00:05:54.500 for the consumers and industrial producers of emissions.
00:05:58.140 Canada's also adopted an electric vehicle mandate for 2035.
00:06:02.620 All new vehicles by 2035 should be sold as electric vehicles.
00:06:06.200 How would you compare and contrast Canada and China's efforts?
00:06:10.080 Is Canada ahead of China?
00:06:11.560 Is Beijing ahead of Ottawa?
00:06:13.040 How would you rate the two countries comparing and contrasting their own policies?
00:06:18.120 In the past, I used to work as a partner at a Vancouver-based energy consulting firm.
00:06:25.620 My consulting firm actually contributed the design of the first ever carbon tax in British Columbia,
00:06:38.060 also the first in North America.
00:06:41.600 So we are quite proud of Canada's track record on climate change.
00:06:49.160 However, when we look at Canada-U.S. financial relations,
00:06:57.500 it's a pity there is a lot of potential on climate engagement
00:07:04.060 that hasn't been fully achieved.
00:07:08.300 I just came from Shanghai for COP30.
00:07:12.680 Well, our organization, Agora Energy China,
00:07:18.800 co-organized the 2025 Shanghai Download on pricing energy and climate issues.
00:07:28.660 This conference has been broadcasted by Xinhua
00:07:33.920 with near 6 million people watching our policy debates
00:07:40.600 during a one-and-a-half-day conference period.
00:07:46.160 One issue we discussed during the conference
00:07:49.740 is how Canada and China should put aside the difference in the past
00:07:59.480 and looking ahead because there are so much potential
00:08:06.540 between Canada and China on clean energy trade,
00:08:11.900 on climate collaboration, among other issues.
00:08:17.700 For instance, for Canada-China disputes on electrical vehicles,
00:08:28.100 this issue needed to be resolved in order to pave the way
00:08:33.860 to improve bilateral political trust.
00:08:37.460 I believe a Premier Carney's recent meeting
00:08:41.900 with the Chinese President Xi Jinping
00:08:44.080 could contribute to a better relations between these two countries.
00:08:52.340 Well, as you can see behind me,
00:08:54.060 the Chinese presence is still well-pronounced.
00:08:56.140 Of course, a number of guest speakers, presentations well attended,
00:08:59.600 government officials engaging across the pavilions.
00:09:02.320 It seems like China is absolutely taking over the show here.
00:09:05.260 And of course, that's all in contrast to the lack of U.S. presence
00:09:07.800 that we've discussed before.
00:09:09.300 Now, on that presence from the U.S.,
00:09:11.180 we heard earlier today that the California Governor,
00:09:14.440 Gavin Newsom, is in Sao Paulo today
00:09:16.880 and will likely be heading to Belém as early as tomorrow morning.
00:09:20.540 So we will keep you up to date with that
00:09:22.760 in case we have a chance to engage with the Governor.
00:09:25.240 Of course, tomorrow morning,
00:09:26.280 we'll also likely see former Environment Minister Stephen Globo
00:09:30.480 along with current Environment Minister Julia de Bruzen.
00:09:33.500 With likely rumors, as I suggested before,
00:09:35.860 of Catherine McKenna being here in Brazil on the ground,
00:09:38.680 I am unsure as to whether she is at the event at COP30
00:09:41.620 or somewhere else for a COP30-related event.
00:09:44.320 But we will catch up with updates later on the day
00:09:48.320 and, of course, tomorrow for Day 2.
00:09:50.380 Day 2 will absolutely be more eventful
00:09:52.200 and we will give you updates to see
00:09:54.520 whether or not U.S. presence remains well-pronounced
00:09:57.360 through at least the state level.
00:09:59.200 And, of course, having some Canadian officials
00:10:02.020 clarify exactly what are Canada's commitments
00:10:04.200 in terms of the dollar figure and amounts
00:10:06.760 and any policy decisions that have been made
00:10:08.920 during this conference.
00:10:10.740 Well, I'm Woli Tam Tam for True North,
00:10:12.500 signing off from Belém para Brasil.