Climate change: major differences and possible cooperation between China and the West-BBC News

“China Dialogue” was established in 2008 with the purpose of promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and the world in the field of ecological environment, and to jointly find solutions to environmental problems.

The environmental and resource costs of China’s sustained and rapid economic growth for more than 30 years have become shocking. It is gradually approaching the critical point of development and facing a middle-income trap. At the same time, climate change has increasingly become an important international issue. Global warming, green economy, and renewable energy have gradually become global issues. Follow the topic.

Hilton said that China’s economic transformation and industrial chain upgrades provide opportunities for the development of green technology and green energy. The vigorous investment in the development of low-carbon technologies has been written into the national development strategy, including transportation electrification, electric vehicle battery technology, renewable energy and nuclear power. Plan, and carbon capture technology.

“All this has changed from a fringe topic to an industrial strategy occupying the center stage. It is also at this time that China is truly directly related to the success of global carbon emission reduction.”

The development of green technology has become an important national policy. A driving force that cannot be ignored is that China “wants to provide goods and services as a supplier to a world that is deeply troubled by carbon”, but this is a different topic from China’s need to reduce carbon emissions as soon as possible. Should not be confused.

So, how different is the climate goal between China and the United States? Can the two sides cooperate in the climate field to shield the interference of confrontational factors such as security, trade and geopolitical tensions?

Hilton believes that it must be admitted that there are indeed many inconsistencies in the goals of the parties, and there is “no simple solution.”

She said: “From the perspective of the United States, this disagreement is based on a deep-rooted view that China is a major threat to the prosperity of the United States and even the security of the United States. This anxiety is partly rooted in China’s industrial policies. As well as the growing awareness of the United States and many advanced economies that China’s industrial policies and measures are unfair, because government subsidies depress prices and thereby achieve monopoly through unfair trade, this has become the biggest serious problem in the United States. This is One aspect of the security issue”.

“The other aspect of supply security involves climate issues, so technology must be involved. The main supplier of many technologies in this area has always been China, such as solar technology. If you want to express criticism on human rights through trade policy, you need to Quickly change the source of raw materials and change suppliers”.

Hilton has been concerned about China’s environmental issues and climate policies for many years. She believes that China’s current position, commitments, and actions on climate issues are quite different from the initial basic attitude of “pollution first, then governance”. However, the outside world is now most concerned about two points: it is not dependent on coal. Timetable for reducing and fulfilling emission reduction commitments.

She said that China is still very dependent on coal, and the amount of coal used continues to rise. This is related to China’s coal-dominated energy structure that requires a large amount of oil imports, as well as energy supply security considerations.

The difficulty of adjusting the energy structure is that it involves the unreasonable airport mechanism, and the consideration of supply security is related to the tension and confrontation of Sino-US relations.

In addition, she added: “Many people are concerned about whether China will accept the 1.5°C target; China has always resisted this number because it is more demanding.” The “Paris Agreement” says “2°C or less”.

However, Hilton said: “The best we can hope for is to adopt a pragmatic, factual approach that separates cooperation in the climate field from tensions in other fields.”

In the context of the ongoing Sino-US trade war and the possible escalation of geopolitical tensions, how can the West maintain contact with China on climate issues while avoiding more confrontational situations?

Hilton believes that it can seek cooperation in a variety of ways in some areas.

For example, China announced not long ago that it would stop building new coal power stations along the “Belt and Road” route, and will also support other emerging economies to develop low-carbon energy systems.

“Of course, the United States is also interested in this matter, and Europe is also interested,” she said. “In my opinion, we obviously should cooperate to ensure that emerging economies can develop the energy needed to support economic growth, but skip the carbon-intensive growth phase. Otherwise, we will only cause trouble for ourselves.”

The design and construction of future cities that are more adaptable and endurable to climate change is another area where China can cooperate with the West, and can also discuss the direction of new energy development in the “Belt and Road” countries.

She emphasized that if there is also a confrontational attitude and a hostile relationship on the issue of climate change, “then all people are losers; there is no way to win without cooperation.”

Mitigating and adapting to climate change, including transportation electrification, carbon tariff system, non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emission calculation method, carbon emission pricing system, timetable for transition to green energy, etc., all ambitions need a lot of funds to achieve.

Developed countries have pledged to raise US$100 billion annually by 2020, but there is still a gap of nearly US$20 billion by 2021. Climate finance is an important agenda of COP26 and will also be an important part of global climate action in the future.

Leung Xi, Professor of Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure Transformation at University College London, believes that the establishment and supervision of the global carbon emission pricing system, carbon emission allowances and carbon trading market is an area where there is a big gap between the positions of China and the West.

He replied in writing to BBC Chinese that there are four main differences in this regard:

“The first is the difference in the degree of development of the carbon pricing system. For example, the European Union and the United Kingdom mainly use the carbon market to reduce carbon emissions, the United States has not yet established a national carbon trading system, and China has just begun to conduct a national carbon market pilot.

The second is the difference in the design of energy, environment and climate policies. The EU uses the carbon market as the core to promote the transformation of the energy system, China uses a variety of policy means including the carbon market to promote the energy transition, and the United States tends to use subsidies and emission regulatory policies;

Third, there are still differences in the distribution of responsibilities for climate mitigation. As a developing country, China adheres to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, while Europe and the United States hope that China will undertake emission reduction targets consistent with those of major developed countries;

The fourth is the mutual trust between mechanisms and the convergence of accounting systems. This requires countries to propose uniform rules for carbon emissions accounting and ensure sufficient transparency under the multilateral mechanism of the Paris Agreement. There is still a certain distance from this goal. “

1. By the middle of the 21st century, ensure that global carbon emissions are zero, and maintain a 1.5 °C warming target that is still achievable

Achieving this goal requires the participating countries to update their NDC, which is their own national carbon emission reduction contribution goal, and propose a bolder and more aggressive emission reduction goal for 2030, which is consistent with achieving the net zero emission goal in the world.Specifically, countries need to: accelerate the phase-out of coal, reduce deforestation, accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and encourage investment in renewable energy

2. Adapt to climate change and protect communities and natural habitats that have been severely impacted

While looking to the future, we must face reality and face the devastating impact that climate change is bringing to all parts of the world. The world is working together to help countries affected by climate change protect and restore ecosystems, establish defense and early warning systems. As well as flexible infrastructure and agriculture to protect lives, livelihoods and homes as much as possible.

In order to achieve the first two goals, developed countries must fulfill their commitments to raise at least US$100 billion in climate funding each year by 2020. There is still a big gap in this commitment until October 2021. Achieving net zero emissions requires trillions of financing and requires international financial institutions, public and private institutions to do their best.

4. Working together to achieve results

Fighting climate change is the unshirkable responsibility of every person on earth, because no one is immune from the impact of climate change. COP26 will strive to finalize the “Paris Rule Manual” so that the “Paris Agreement” can take effect the specific rules, but also to promote cooperation between the government, enterprises and the private sector to speed up the response to the climate crisis.

Rio Convention -In June 1992, 179 country representatives and world leaders met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss climate change issues. The final result was a number of declarations and agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Its “ultimate goal is… to achieve… to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level to prevent dangerous human interference to the climate system.” The parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change pledged to meet regularly to verify, assess and promote the achievement of climate goals. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is designated as the annual summit.

Kyoto Protocol -In 1997, the Third Conference of the Parties (COP3) passed the “Kyoto Protocol”, which became a milestone on the road to climate issues, but in reality it was reduced to a weak, inefficient and obviously flawed attempt to control carbon emissions.

Paris Agreement -At COP21 held in Paris in December 2015, the parties reached a binding agreement requiring all countries, rich or poor, to achieve economic decarbonization.