China is weighing a bid to host the 2028 UN Climate Change Conference, COP33, according to people familiar with the discussions, though Beijing has not made a final decision or set a timeline. The move would let the world’s largest coal consumer position itself as a climate leader at the same time it continues building new coal fired power plants faster than any other country.
The 2028 summit is slated for the Asia Pacific region under the UN’s rotation system. India withdrew its own offer to host COP33 in April without giving a reason, and South Korea has previously expressed interest, leaving the slot open for China to step into.
Why Would China Want to Host a Climate Summit While Still Building Coal Plants?
Hosting COP33 would hand China a global stage to showcase its investments in solar, wind, and electric vehicles, framing the country as a driver of the energy transition rather than the world’s largest source of coal power. It would also let Beijing draw a contrast with the current US administration’s climate policy, positioning China as the more reliable partner on the issue at a moment when Washington has pulled back from international climate commitments.
None of that changes the physical reality on the ground: new coal capacity keeps coming online in China to feed its heavy industry and manufacturing base, even as the country leads the world in solar and wind installations too. Hosting a UN climate summit would be a genuine diplomatic win for China regardless of that contradiction, since past COP hosts have rarely been judged on their own emissions record rather than their diplomatic performance during the conference itself.
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