Top UN official suggests the world look to China for leadership
The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has praised China’s “renewable” energy and suggested that the world look to China for leadership for the “green” transition.
This noteworthy “leadership” is not because of democratic values or innovation, but because of China’s top-down, government-controlled grip on the solar supply chain.
China’s Green Agenda Is About Making the Planet See Red
By Power the Future, 6 May 2025
In a jaw-dropping interview that Jimmy Quinn with the National Review revealed, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher praised Beijing’s role in the global climate agenda:
“Seeing how Beijing’s air quality has improved in recent decades has inspired Fletcher to “think about how we can make the humanitarian movement more green, how can we look to China for leadership about how we bring more renewable energy, solar panels, wind power, in the humanitarian supply chains.”
UN Aid Chief Praises China’s Green ‘Leadership’ in Fawning Interview, National Review, 6 May 2025.
Also see video on the Twitter post by FU Cong, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations and former Chinese Ambassador to the EU, 30 April 2025
It’s an astonishing admission: a top UN official openly calling on the world to look to China as a leader in the world’s green transition not because of democratic values or innovation, but because of their top-down, government-controlled grip on the solar supply chain.
This is how China operates: co-opting international institutions to advance its strategic and economic interests. From the World Health Organisation to now the United Nations’ humanitarian arm, Beijing leverages its funding, influence, and propaganda to bend global narratives in its favour. Every glossy UN climate report or “green” partnership promoted out of Beijing should be viewed through that lens: not as a global consensus, but as Beijing’s foreign policy.
Power The Future has been warning for years that the global environmental movement has been co-opted by the Chinese Communist Party. Our 2023 report, ‘Where Green Meets Red‘, laid it out plainly: the more the U.S. embraces forced electrification and green mandates, the more we hand leverage to Beijing.
From solar panels to critical minerals, electric vehicles to battery storage, China dominates every layer of the supply chain. And increasingly, with allies inside global institutions like the UN, they’re legitimising their control and exporting dependence under the banner of climate virtue.
It’s not leadership. It’s about control. And America [and the world] needs to wake up.
About the Author
Power the Future is an organisation that advocates for American energy workers and aims to enrich the national conversation on energy. Founded in 2018, it focuses on sharing information about the energy industry with the public and the press, highlighting the contributions of energy workers and countering misinformation from radical green groups and ideologues. The organisation is based in Washington, D.C., and operates as a non-profit entity. It is not a lobbying shop but aims to ensure that the whole truth of every energy conversation is shared in Congress, the White House and the media.
