AKIPRESS.COM - Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio has said China can be a “hero” for the environmental cause while on a trip to the world’s most populous nation to promote The Revenant, reports The Guardian.

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s stark and harrowing western scored a hugely impressive $33 mln on debut at the Chinese box office this weekend, pushing the film’s worldwide debut close to $500 mln. At a Beijing news conference, DiCaprio praised China for moving towards renewable energy in order to reduce carbon emissions.

“As we all know, the United States and China are the two biggest contributors, and I think that China has made radical movements forward as far as alternative energy and ways to be sustainable,” said the actor and green campaigner. “I really think that China can be the hero of the environmental movement, they can be the hero of the climate change movement.

“They have an opportunity to change the world and I have all the confidence in the world that that is their intention,” he added.

DiCaprio is a popular figure in China, largely due to local filmgoers’ fondness for James Cameron’s 1997 romantic disaster epic Titanic. He is known there as Xiao Li, or Little Lee.