Measures signal possible resumption of China-US climate dialogue: experts
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the country’s ambitious pledge to fight against climate change on Saturday night by greatly reducing its carbon dioxide emissions and increasing the share of non-fossil fuels and forest stock in the next decade, which is seen as intensified efforts to turn the pledge into concrete action.
The measures are also expected to become the largest boon for the global fight against climate change, paving the way for the resumption of dialogue channels between China and the US, according to experts.
At the Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday, Xi said China has made important contributions to adopting the Paris Agreement and has made active efforts in implementing it. The country aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
He also announced further commitments for 2030, including lowering carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, increasing the forest stock volume by 6 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bringing its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.
“After proposing the goal for achieving peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality, China intensified its own contribution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, signaling that China is turning its climate change ambition into concrete action,” said Li Yan, chief representative of the non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace, in a statement sent to the Global Times.
File photo shows the Bianshan wind farm in Changxing County, east China’s Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)
Xi pledged in September that China will adopt more vigorous policies and measures in order to achieve peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
The specific goals for reducing emissions, which also set new objectives for the wind and solar power industries, also sent out a positive signal from the central government that it would accelerate low carbon development, which urges energy-intensive industries to transform, Li said.
Compared to the 2015 version of China’s intended nationally determined contributions to reduce emissions, the 2020 version shows China has stepped up efforts. For example, in the 2015 version, the country outlined aims to lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by about 60 to 65 percent from the 2005 level by 2030, while the latest version aims to reduce it by 65 percent.
Compared to the 2015 goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 20 percent, the new pledge aims to increase the share to around 25 percent.
US President-elect Joe Biden pledged Saturday to rejoin the Paris climate accord on the first day of his presidency, after the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement, the AP reported.
China took the initiate to deliver an olive branch on climate issues which will also become the most promising area for China and the US to resume dialogue, following months of escalating confrontation in geopolitics, trade and high-tech, according to some experts.
“It will also lay out a foundation for cooperation between the two countries, to bring divergences under control and not let the bilateral relationship continue deteriorating,” Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the Climate Ambition Summit via video link on Dec. 12, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
Global Times
