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Country's emissions goal lauded by experts

2020-09-28

Experts from home and abroad have applauded President Xi Jinping's announcement on scaling up the country's post-2020 climate action commitment, saying the move shows that China has lived up to its responsibility as a major country and will provide impetus for the rest of the world to ratchet up climate action.

China aims to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, Xi announced on Tuesday while addressing the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly via video.

Carbon neutrality means the realization of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by stopping emissions, or by both reducing emissions and removing emissions from nature.

"China will scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures," Xi said.

The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions are national post-2020 climate action commitments submitted by countries before reaching the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015.

Landmark pledges

The updated commitment announced by the president has gone far beyond the 2065-70 global carbon neutrality schedule under the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2 C above preindustrial levels, said Xie Zhenhua, China's former special representative for climate change affairs.

"This bold target may move global carbon neutrality ahead of the schedule by five to 10 years. It will also play a key role in promoting stronger global climate governance," he said, adding that the move shows that the country has lived up to its responsibility as a major country.

According to research coalition Climate Action Tracker, if China's goal is achieved, it will lower global warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 degrees alone by 2100, the biggest single reduction ever estimated by the coalition.

"This is a landmark announcement as China has set out an ultimate endpoint emissions target," said Helen Clarkson, CEO of the London-based Climate Group, an international nonprofit organization.

With the European Union also looking to increase its target, this is helping to ensure that the world stays aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement, she said.

"There is no doubt that efforts from China will play a major role in shaping how the rest of the world progresses on climate action, especially in the absence of US federal leadership," she said.

In November 2019, the United States formally notified the UN that the country was withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, and the withdrawal is still in process.

Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, a US-based NGO, said the announcement of the new commitment is of great significance.

"This could be another milestone in China's efforts to address its contribution to climate change. … If that vision becomes a reality, it will represent an enormous step toward what the world needs to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change," he said in a statement.

At a virtual meeting on Sept 14, Chinese and EU leaders decided to establish a China-EU High Level Environment and Climate Dialogue. "The foundations laid during the recent EU-China dialogue pave the way for greater cooperation going forward," said Krupp.

"A step up on climate action from China, Europe and the US, which together account for more than half the world's emissions, would be a real game changer. We now have two of the three out of the gate. America needs to get back in the fight."

"I welcome China's ambition to curb emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. It's an important step in our global fight against climate change under the Paris Agreement," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media on Wednesday, adding that "we will work with China on this goal".

Arduous task

Speaking of China's actions to fulfill its international responsibilities for climate change, Liu Youbin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said on Friday that China has attained its 2020 climate action targets ahead of schedule.

As of the end of last year, China had managed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 48.1 percent from 2005 levels, and the share of nonfossil fuels in the country's primary energy consumption had increased to 15.3 percent, he said.

He also said China has topped the world regarding the number of patents, investment, installed capacity and power generation in the renewable energy sector for several years. Over $100 billion has been invested annually in the sector for five consecutive years.

Experts said it's an arduous task for the country to realize the new target.

Zou Ji, president of Energy Foundation China, said the new vision put forward by President Xi shows that China's goals on tackling climate change and promoting modernization are highly embedded in each other.

As China forges ahead in its modernization progress, it's a necessity for the country to increase investment in climate safety and resort to low-carbon transformation to create new impetus for economic development, he noted.

He said, to honor the updated commitment, China needs to include more ambitious climate targets in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and accelerate the transformation of its energy consumption structure.

The country should also formulate action plans at both regional and national levels as soon as possible while coming up with medium-and long-term decarbonization road maps that are economically and technically viable, he added.

He Jiankun, deputy director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change, said: "Research shows that China faces more challenges in its development transformation."

To achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 requires a huge transformation in all aspects of the social, economic, energy and technological systems. "The country needs to make arduous efforts," he said.


From : China Daily

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