China Emphasizes on Climate Change

50China Emphasizes on Climate Change
O n December 12, 2015, the historic Paris Agreement adopted with no objection by the 196 parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) is seen as a new chapter for humanity in tackling climate change issues after the year 2020.Beijing issued for the first time three “orange-level alerts” for severe air pollution, smog and heavy fog on November 30, 2015. On the same day, the Climate Change Conference 2015 was opened in the suburb of Paris, where state heads from more than 150 nations gathered to jointly appeal to take urgent actions for addressing global climate warming. Climate change has become a common concern among the general public. As we all live under the same sky, nobody can detach himself/herself from climate change. It’s a consensus to strike an agreement
T he Pa r is Cl imate Cha nge Conference was held during November 30 to December 11, aiming to negotiate under the new international framework the global warming counter measures — the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (U NFCCC). Before the conference, many experts have predicted that the chance to strike the first global agreement based on the past 18 years’ efforts is slim. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations called all the nations across the world to make a commitment at the Paris Climate Change Conference for striking a “powerful agreement” to address climate change.
Samantha Smith, responsible officer of the “global climate and energy initiative” under the World Wildlife Fund, holds that it is “highly possible” to achieve an agreement in Paris despite the different requirements on the agreement content among various nations, as nearly all the nations hope to strike an agreement in a certain format. At the current stage, the interna -tional community boasts unprecedented superiority to address climate change, because cooperation among governments, private departments and private social organizations, scientific consensus as well as economic approaches may support to achieve low-carbon development and enhance the adaptability to climate change, pointed out Rachel Kyte, Vice President of World Bank and special envoy for climate change. Kyte regards that all the above listed positive factors are related with China’s proactive participation and support. Both the Joint Statement on Climate Change from the U S & Chinese Heads and the Joint Statement on Climate Change from the French & Chinese Heads send a very definite signal that China is an active participant in the international community. The Paris Agreement runs to 32 pages with 29 articles, including objective, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, f inance, technology development and transfer, capacity building, and transparency of action and support. On the basis of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the Paris Agreement aims to hold the global average temperature rise to below 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and strives to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The parties agreed to work to define a clear roadmap on By Si Haijian ratcheting up climate finance to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 while also setting a new goal before 2025 on the provision of finance from the $100-billion floor.Disagreements clearly exist during the negotiation Although all the state heads indicated in their speeches to jointly address global warming, Paris Climate Change Conference saw slow progress from the negotiation in the past three to four days and the general negotiation evaluation is “not optimistic”, said Xie Zhenhua, special representative on China’s climate change issue when interviewed in Paris on December 3. Xie revealed that disagreement lies in many aspects on the negotiation table of the Paris Climate Change Conference. First, whether the result of the conference is legally binding. Xie said that some nations regard that all the decisions made at the Paris Climate Cha nge C on ference have to be incorporated into the agreement so as to become legal binding. Some other nations, however, are concerned that some decisions may encounter barriers in terms of the domestic political
procedures, therefore these nations hope Copyright©博看网 . All Rights Reserved.
51I ndustrIal Watch
that only some decisions are legally binding.
Second, how to make the global emission cut actions more powerful. So far nearly 180 nations have submitted their “independent contribution objective” to specify their own emission cut scheme. But some agencies regard that the total emission cut amount in the “independent contribution”
cannot realize the objective to control the temperature rise within 2 degrees. Confronted with such a situation, some nations hope to compulsorily require all the nations to intensify emission cut efforts via regular review; but some other nations are against this kind of “intrusive” regular review.
Third, funding is a problem. The developed countrieshave committed in Copenhagen to increase the capital support to the developing nations to annually USD 100 billion by the year of 2020, which hasn’t been realized so far.
Fourth, disagreement lies in the relation between Paris Treaty and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Some nations regard that the Paris Treaty is the replacement of the Convention, whereas some other countries such as China treat Paris Treaty as the next element for the Convention.
Xie calls on all the negotiating nations to seldom use or never use “NO”. Instead, a proactive attitude is needed to concern how to solve problems. Progress will only be made once all the participants are cooperative for the same direction.
In terms of the disagreements, Xie Zhenhua suggests the legal format “agreement” + “decision” for the Paris Treaty, a flexible approach having both legal and political binding effect. About
the emission cut review, Xie suggests
to replace the detailed review by overall
control. After learning the gap between
overall individual contribution and
emission cut demand, capital support
from the developed countries may enable
some nations to proactively intensify
efforts on emission cut. Regarding the
funding problem, the developed nations
are supposed to continuously increase
capital support to the developing nations
with RMB 100 billion as a starting
point after the year of 2020 and to
define the road map and time table of
the capital support. In addition, Xie
stresses that the Paris Treaty shall be
subordinate to the Convention and abide
by the principle & framework of the
Convention as well as the “common yet
differentiated” responsibility principle,
but the details can be adjusted.
China is an active participant in
fighting global climate change
China’s efforts in fighting global
climate change is worthy of praise,
said Samantha Smith when recently
interviewed with Xinhua News Agency.
Smith spoke highly of China for
its efforts in restricting greenhouse gas
emission and in adhering to the “common
yet differentiated responsibility”
principle proposed in the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change. Although China is a developing
country, it has made great commitment
in terms of addressing climate change
via “individual contribution by nations”,
and it has also announced to spend
RMB 20 billion in setting up “south-
south cooperation fund on China
climate change”.
At the opening ceremony of the
Paris climate change conference held
on November 30, Chinese President Xi
Jinping delivered an important speech
themed around “jointly build a win-
win, equal and reasonable governance
mechanism on climate change, in
which Xi clarified China’s significant
standpoints regarding global climate
governance.
Xi said that the Paris Treaty
shall consider the varying national
circumstances and respect the different
countries, especially the difference
in terms of national policy, capacity
construction, domestic economy and
structure among the developing countries.
Combating climate change shall not
discourage the developing countries’
rational demands for eliminating poverty
and raising people’s living standard. The
developed countries are supposed to
share more knowledge and take bigger
responsibilities in a bid to achieve win-
win cooperation. China will register the
peaking for carbon dioxide emission by
the year of 2030 and will endeavor to
increase 4.5 billion cubic meters of forest
area based on the level of 2005.
President Xi emphasizes that China
has always been an active participant in
the global course for addressing climate
change. So far China has turned into
the world’s biggest nation for energy
saving as well as for new & renewable
energy utilization. China has clearly
put forward that the year of 2030 is the
emission peaking year and it strives to
cut carbon emission to 65% by 60% on
the basis of 2005, raise the ratio of non-
fossil energy to around 20%, initiate the
“package” objective of national carbon
emission trading system starting from
2017, and develop a series of energy and
climate policies.
Financial Times recognizes China’s
efforts in fighting climate change
and points out that China’s large-
scale investments in nuclear power,
hydropower, solar power and wind power
generation will weaken the role of coal in
the national energy mix. It is estimated
that by 2020 coal will account for around
62% in China’s energy consumption,
lower than the current ratio of 64%.
According to Yang Fuqiang, senior
advisor of the US environment protection
organization Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), China only needs to
eliminate the industrial coal-fired boilers
for realizing around one half of the
emission cut objective.
China will endeavor to
increase 4.5 billion cubic
meters of forest area based
on the level of 2005.
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