China’s historic climate change announcement

World Today

China details progress on fighting climate change ahead of Paris summit

China held a press conference on Thursday to detail the progress that has been made in fighting climate change.

In Paris, 196 countries are expected to sign a new legally binding climate change agreement to help ensure global warming does not exceed two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels after 2020.

Xie Zhenhua, China’s special representative on climate change affairs, presented detailed information about the implementation of the 2015 Progress Report of China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, as well as his expectations on the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11.

 
China says it will increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its energy mix to about 20% by 2030. China also pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions, per unit of GDP, by 60% to 65% from the 2005 level, by 2030. The announcement marked the first time that China has set a time frame to peak its carbon dioxide emissions.

Xie Zhenhua said that despite divergences, most countries are taking positive actions to tackle the issues of climate change.

He also said that the final agreements to be reached during the meeting should be powerful and legitimate, under the basic principles of the framework, including the one that different countries should take common, but differing, responsibilities based on the circumstances of their particular country.

Beijing making big moves ahead of Paris climate conference
The Chinese government says it will use the opportunity of the next five-year-plan period to achieve its goal of peaking greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, laying a solid foundation for global efforts to deal with climate change.

CCTV’s Zheng Yibing reports from Beijing.


China has made consistent efforts to tackle climate change over the past year, dating back to last November’s announcement on climate change and clean energy cooperation during the 2014 APEC meeting in which China announced targets to peak carbon dioxide emissions around 2030.

Xie Zhenhua also said political trust is a must for the success of the meeting. The green economy and low-carbon developing initiatives are the only solution to help face the dilemma of economic development and the challenges of climate change.

In September of 2015, China also announced the launch of a national carbon cap-and-trade system scheduled to be implemented by 2017, in addition to a 20-billion-yuan (or around 3.1 billion U.S. dollars) ‘South-South’ fund aimed at helping other developing countries combat and adapt to climate change.

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