PLATINUM and SILVER prices exploded at the start of London trade Thursday, hitting fresh multi-year highs after Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced new green energy targets for the world's No.1 carbon emissions nation.

Gold meanwhile fell for a second session running despite new US central bank policy-maker (and White House advisor) Stephen Miran urging Fed colleagues to slash interest rates in a round of morning TV interviews. 

Essential in solar energy photovoltaic systems, silver in China had already risen in price for the 5th session running overnight after Xi spoke by videolink to the United Nations climate conference, hitting new all-time highs above ¥10,350 per kilo.

The Dollar price of silver then leapt as Shanghai closed and business opened in London − global hub for bullion trading and storage − gaining $1 per ounce in 3 hours to top $45 for the first time in 14 years.

Platinum prices leapt faster, with the white precious metal − used in autocatalysts to cut harmful emissions from fossil-fuel engine systems, including hybrid-electric vehicles − gaining 3.2% to hit new 11-year Dollar highs at $1521 per Troy ounce.

US President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that "globalism" has failed and "must be rejected" along with the "climate change con job."

But with Typhoon Ragasa battering Hong Kong and the south-western Chinese coast this week, President Xi then made what the BBC calls a "landmark pledge" for the first time to cut China's emissions, telling the UN that "The green and low-carbon transition is the trend of our time."

Vowing to reduce the world No.2 economy's net greenhouse gas emissions by 7-10% before 2035, Xi said he wants wind and solar energy installations to grow 6-fold from 2020 levels, reaching a capacity of 3,600 Gigawatts − the same level as China's total installed power capacity today.

New energy vehicles will also become "mainstream" Xi said, potentially boosting demand for platinum-group metals as autocats in hybrid-electric cars require heavier PGM loadings to ensure lower emissions.

With platinum finding a small but growing use in hydrogen fuel-cell storage and powertrain systems, stockpiling by auto manufacturers in China helped platinum's steep 2025 gains to begin in May, according to industry views and analysis.

Sister metal palladium also jumped Thursday in London, soaring 4.1% to hit 2-month highs, while copper − which finds 70% of its demand from electrical applications − added 5.1% to its highest since end-July.

Gold in contrast cut its gain for the week in half compared to Tuesday's new record high, trading back down to $3730 per Troy ounce as betting that the US Fed will slash Dollar interest rates by the end of this year as Trump and Miran wish fell back following stronger-than-expected Q2 GDP growth and price inflation, plus strong durable goods orders and home sales and a drop in new jobless benefit claims.

"The Federal Reserve has been too high for too long," said US President Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Fox TV yesterday, praising his boss's Fed appointee Miran because "he has said more in a week than the Biden appointees said during their entire tenure."

After this morning's surge, London's midday silver auction, the world's single deepest moment of liquidity, found silver almost 20 cents beneath the peak price of $45 − a level topped at the City's globally-recognized fixings only 7 times in history, first in January 1980 at the peak of the 1970s' oil and inflation crises, and then in April 2011 at the peak of the US-led global financial crisis.