How China is becoming credible climate pioneer?

Published: June 07,2022

By Emilia Fernandez

A jogger runs in an ecological park in Yongchuan District of southwest China’s Chongqing, May 6, 2022. /Xinhua

Half a century ago, in 1972, the first UN Conference on the Human Environment decided to designate June 5 as World Environment Day. Since then, this day has been considered as a principal vehicle for raising awareness on environmental concerns.

Literally, it is quite impossible to address environmental issues especially climate change without cooperation from global leaders such as China, U.S., EU etc. Marking the upcoming World Environment Day, it is high time to consider the efforts put forward by China for environment protection while embracing rapid economic development as well.

The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, was adopted on December 12, 2015 to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. In order to give a push to the collective fight against climate change, China inked the Paris Agreement on the first day of its opening for signature, on April 22, 2016. By ratifying the Agreement, China officially confirmed its commitment towards tackling climate change. China’s position as the world’s largest investor in renewable energy is one of the many instances that shows its genuine intention towards implementing the terms of the Paris Agreement.

To promote international consensus, cooperation, and realize green development, China has established the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) International Green Development Coalition. Undoubtedly, this will reduce the adverse environmental impact in BRI participating countries. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) dubbed this coalition as an open, inclusive, and voluntary international network that brings together the environmental expertise of all partners to ensure that the BRI brings sustainable development.

China has reaffirmed its climate goals in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted to the UN Climate Change Conference where Beijing pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and aimed to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The interval between both goals is 30 years for China but was 43 years for the U.S. and 71 years for the EU.

So, China is going to face tremendous challenges as it has to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality in the shortest time of global history. And, to materialize this “dual carbon goals,” China has adopted a whole-society approach along with some long-term pragmatic targets.

According to the NDC, Beijing wants to lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level. Moreover, China declared to proliferate its wind and solar power generating capacity to at least 1,200 gigawatts by 2030. Such declarations are the clear proof of the country’s strong will to strengthen global efforts to address climate change.

To support the “green transformation” and strengthen its role in preventing pollution, China launched the National Green Development Fund (NGDF) in 2020, the country’s first dedicated environmental fund with approximately $14 billion. This fund will mainly be used to invest in national strategic programs and to improve the economic policy system for environment and ecological protection.

Rural scenery of Bama Yao Autonomous County in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, May 8, 2022. /Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced, at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, that “China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.” Phasing out coal investments would be promising to reduce carbon emissions, which pose a serious threat to the Sustainable Development Goal 13. This praiseworthy initiative by the Chinese President has been perceived as an effort to improve global environmental governance and an active response to the climate crisis.

Recently, China announced plans to plant and conserve 70 billion trees by 2030 in response to 1t.org, an initiative of the World Economic Forum to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. Beijing’s active response to 1t.org demonstrates not only its capacity but also strong commitment to safeguard the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Apart from helping the global community to combat climate change and deforestation, such initiative will also motivate other developed economies to follow the same path.

China has been a global pioneer in fighting the climate crisis by ensuring low carbon emission, relying on high-speed railway network with full intellectual property rights and high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) train system supported by homegrown technologies.

Besides, China leads the world in the number of nuclear power plants and hydropower generators being constructed with particular focus on reforming the energy sector to cleaner and recyclable energy variants. Moreover, China launched a landmark emissions trading market, a powerful tool to drive down climate change to restrict carbon dioxide emissions.

Considering the transaction volume, the market is now the world’s largest carbon trading market. China had established the national carbon market in 2021 for setting emission caps for major electricity companies, allowing these firms to buy the right for emissions from others with a lower carbon footprint.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has long been firmly promoting global cooperation on tackling climate challenges. It is the first major developing country that has stated its clear vision of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Undoubtedly, such a bold move will bolster confidence in global environment protection efforts.

Thus, Beijing has been putting in strenuous efforts in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and is contributing to the construction of a global ecological civilization. The aforementioned analysis testifies how China has demonstrated its capabilities, commitments, and intention in mounting global efforts to fight worsening climate catastrophe.

Emilia Fernandez, a security and political analyst with a focus on South Asian geopolitics, is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland

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