China News Agency, Beijing, October 14th: To build a new global "climate" together, China has never been absent
——Interview with Wang Yi, Deputy Director of the National Climate Change Expert Committee and Researcher of the Institute of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting, Chinese Academy of Sciences
China News Agency reporter Li Jinlei Peng Dawei
"Act together or commit suicide together." This summer, in the face of frequent extreme weather, UN Secretary-General Guterres issued a warning.
Floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires, and abnormal climate changes have faced severe tests for mankind, and global climate governance is facing huge threats and challenges.
Data map: Lunanshan Wind Farm in Lama Township.
Photo by Li Yimin
"The greenhouse gases emitted by human burning fossil fuels have a greenhouse effect, which has led to a rise in global temperature, and the warming has brought some changes in various layers of the earth's surface, such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events. And produce related risks such as food production and energy security." Wang Yi, deputy director of the National Climate Change Expert Committee and a researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an exclusive interview with China News Agency "China Focus Face-to-face".
"We must accelerate action to save mankind itself." Wang Yi said, from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to the Kyoto Protocol, to the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Agreement passed last year, mankind must Take unified action to jointly tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the process of coping with climate change and promoting global climate governance, China has continuously updated and improved its goals according to its own capabilities. From the 11th Five-Year Plan period, when China put forward binding targets for energy conservation and emission reduction, to the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, China proposed "Nationally Determined Contributions". ”, and then put forward the “dual carbon” (carbon peak and carbon neutral) commitment in 2020, which has strongly promoted the process of global response to climate change.
Over the past ten years, China has been "going green", unswervingly following the path of ecological priority, green and low-carbon development, and has achieved remarkable results. A "green and green" China has been displayed in front of the world.
In the past decade, China has steadily promoted the adjustment of its energy structure. The installed capacity and power generation of wind power and photovoltaics ranked first in the world, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles ranked first in the world.
China strictly controls carbon dioxide emissions. In 2020, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 48.4% compared with 2005. At the same time, a national carbon market mechanism has been established, making it the carbon market that covers the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
At the same time, China has continuously improved the carbon sink capacity of the ecosystem. It is the country with the largest increase in forest density and the largest area of artificial afforestation in the world. The country's green area accounts for a quarter of the world's total.
"In the past decade, China has supported an average annual economic growth rate of 6.6% with an average annual energy consumption growth rate of 3%. The economic growth of developing countries has not been decoupled from energy growth, but China has supported the economy with less energy. Growth." Wang Yi said that on the one hand, controlling the consumption of fossil energy, and on the other hand, changing the energy structure, China has obvious advantages in some important industries, especially in the fields of renewable energy equipment and power battery manufacturing, and it is in the global carbon emission reduction. It played an important role.
At present, global climate governance is facing multiple challenges such as the global epidemic, economic downturn, energy and food crises, geographic competition, and the "swingback" of some countries' climate policies.
Wang Yi believes that developed countries should accelerate their own actions, and at the same time, they should also support developing countries and leave more room for them to develop, instead of "flicking" developing countries into making unrealistic emission reduction commitments.
In the process of recovery and response, it is necessary to find a route to promote a high-quality and just transition, with more energy-efficient and sustainable non-fossil energy growth to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while improving adaptive capacity to compensate for mitigation, adaptation, technology, financial , leadership and other deficits, and jointly promote the global response to climate change.
(Finish)
Wang Yi (right), deputy director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change and researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "China Focus" in Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jiang Qiming
Excerpts from the interview are as follows:
China News Service: The World Meteorological Organization recently released the report "United in Science". The report warns: Humanity is heading in the wrong direction. Without more ambitious action, the natural and socioeconomic impacts of climate change will become increasingly damaging. Why do extreme weather occur frequently around the world? What are the challenges facing mankind in addressing climate change?
Wang Yi:
The report of the World Meteorological Organization reveals that human action is far from the goal. In particular, to keep the temperature rise within 1.5°C, the current action is far from enough. It even said that efforts should be increased sevenfold. This is a huge gap.
Climate change is first and foremost a scientific issue. The greenhouse effect produced by the burning of fossil energy by humans and the emission of greenhouse gases has led to a rise in global temperature, which has brought about some changes in various circles on the earth's surface, such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and extreme weather. The frequency and intensity of climate events have increased, and related risks such as food production and energy security have seriously affected the survival and development of human beings. Therefore, we must accelerate actions to save human beings.
From the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to the Kyoto Protocol, to the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Agreement passed last year, mankind must take unified action to combat climate change in order to reduce the damage caused by burning fossil energy. emission of greenhouse gases.
There are two main tasks to deal with climate change. On the one hand, mitigation is to reduce the consumption or dependence of fossil energy, and at the same time, it is necessary to increase the carbon sink of the ecosystem and develop and utilize carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The other side is adaptation, the surface temperature of the earth is still rising, we need to adapt to this change, and we also need to do more to do this work.
The photovoltaic power generation of "fishing and light complementary" in Changzhou, Jiangsu has achieved both economic and ecological benefits.
Photo by Yang Bo
China News Service: What contribution has China made to promoting global climate governance?
Wang Yi:
At the international level, China promotes the multilateral climate process and facilitates the conclusion of a series of international climate rules.
At the domestic level, China proposed binding targets for energy conservation and emission reduction during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, China's "Nationally Determined Contribution" during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, and the "Double Carbon" commitment in 2020, all of which have strongly promoted the global response. The process of climate change.
According to its own capabilities, China is constantly updating and improving its goals, advancing step by step, and making positive and leading contributions.
China is now the largest developing country and the second largest economy in the world. On the one hand, it needs to cooperate with other countries to take action, and on the other hand, it is also helping other developing countries to cope with climate change and achieve sustainable development goals.
In the past ten years, China has supported an average annual economic growth rate of 6.6% with an average annual energy consumption growth rate of 3%. In fact, the economic growth of developing countries has not been decoupled from energy growth, but China has achieved an average annual growth rate of 6.6% with less energy consumption. support economic growth.
At the same time, the development of renewable energy is very rapid. The cumulative installed capacity of renewable energy power generation in my country has approached 1.1 billion kilowatts, accounting for 44.8% of the total installed power capacity. of about 30%.
On the one hand, control the consumption of fossil energy, and on the other hand, change the energy structure, rely more on renewable energy and new energy, and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the growth of energy.
China has obvious advantages in some important industries, especially in the fields of renewable energy equipment and power battery manufacturing, and has played an important role in global carbon emission reduction.
Wang Yi, deputy director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change and researcher of the Institute of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "China Focus" in Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jiang Qiming
China News Service: Wang Hongjian, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Mission to the EU, said recently that green cooperation cannot be promoted in a vacuum, and it is impossible to engage in geopolitical confrontation while demanding unconditional cooperation from others. How to solve this dilemma?
Wang Yi:
Addressing climate change is a systematic project involving systematic changes in the entire economy and society.
Under the intensified geopolitical competition, the approach of zero-sum game is not advisable, and cooperation in tackling climate change is still the foundation.
Developed countries must first improve their own efforts, but also provide financial support to developing countries and leave more room for them to develop, instead of "flicking" developing countries (making unrealistic emission reduction commitments).
Countries should reduce carbon dioxide emissions through the growth of more energy-efficient and sustainable non-fossil energy sources, and at the same time improve adaptive capacity, make up for deficits in mitigation, adaptation, technology, funding, leadership, etc., and jointly promote the global response to climate change. It is important that , climate protection, economic recovery and growth are integrated.
Many non-climate factors such as the Ukrainian crisis, the new crown epidemic, and inflation are intertwined with climate issues. How to better deal with these issues requires us to do more research and take more pragmatic actions.
At the same time, competition is also inevitable, especially in the field of technology. It is necessary to promote innovation through competition and reduce costs through competition. However, cooperation is the mainstream, so we should seize various opportunities for cooperation and prepare for competition at the same time.
China News Agency reporter: Climate change is a global challenge that transcends countries and ideologies. However, in recent years, some countries have shown the tendency of climate unilateralism in international cooperation. Global climate governance cooperation has brought serious obstacles. How to overcome climate unilateralism and promote pragmatic cooperation and action?
Wang Yi:
Climate unilateralism has two tendencies. One is non-cooperation and does not recognize the fact of climate change. Just like the Trump administration in the US withdrew from the Paris Agreement and adopted a non-cooperative attitude, it affected global cooperation and cooperation. Multilateral process to address climate change.
Second, it does not respect the current multilateral rules.
Many developed countries simply want other countries to raise their goals, be more ambitious and more powerful, but ignore the transformation paths and alternatives of these countries.
China agrees to continuously reduce fossil energy consumption and make more use of renewable energy, but it needs a fair, safe and smooth transition.
In the past year, Europe has experienced the Ukraine crisis and also experienced energy shortages, which shows that we still need a more scientific and reasonable path and a clearer alternative to achieve our goals.
To prevent unilateralism and follow the basic path of multilateralism, we need to strengthen exchanges and communication, and we must promote bilateral and multilateral exchanges and cooperation to increase trust and dispel doubts.
China must be firm in its direction, maintain its strength and rhythm, and at the same time, it must tell China's story well through international communication, share the practice, experience and technology of "dual carbon" with other countries, and help other developing countries achieve green and low-carbon transformation and sustainable development. develop.
Baihetan Hydropower Station.
Photo courtesy of Dongfang Electric
China News Service reporter: The principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" is the cornerstone of maintaining fairness and justice in global climate governance. However, at present, some developed countries are trying to eliminate this cornerstone by establishing carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM, commonly known as carbon tariff) and other means to transfer emission responsibility and emission reduction costs to developing countries. How to treat this phenomenon?
Wang Yi:
We must have a comprehensive understanding of this. The "carbon border adjustment mechanism" proposed by the EU unilaterally does not conform to the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". At the same time, whether it undermines some existing multilateral rules also needs attention.
For example, EU countries claim that CBAM does not undermine WTO rules, but the WTO is concerned with free trade and investment facilitation, the provisions of relevant environmental provisions are not clear, there has been no substantial progress in the identification of relevant environmental products, and no tax reduction for environmental products has been reached. The agreement has led to the establishment of various "green trade barriers" by some countries.
Therefore, the EU countries' approach is questionable.
In the context of the Ukraine crisis and inflation, energy prices are soaring, and many policy environments of the "carbon border adjustment mechanism" have also undergone great changes. We need to comprehensively analyze and respond to them, but the most important thing is to accelerate the transformation.
China has many advantages in renewable energy equipment manufacturing, power batteries and electric vehicles. As long as we stick to the direction and realize systemic changes, we will transform the entire industrial structure, energy structure, production and lifestyle, and trade methods to green and low-carbon. Go faster, and the associated policy challenges are expected to be resolved.
China News Service: The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) is about to be held in Egypt. At present, global climate governance is facing multiple challenges such as the global epidemic, economic downturn, energy and food crises, and the "swingback" of climate policies in some countries. How can China maintain its determination and promote the continued progress of the multilateral climate process?
Wang Yi:
China's special envoy for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, has said many times that COP27 should first be a conference of implementation and action.
It is necessary to implement the provisions of the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Agreement, but there are some important gaps now, such as adaptation issues and funding issues. The developed countries have not yet offered the support of US$100 billion in funding by 2020. implement.
Ambition and pragmatic action must be balanced.
Given the Ukrainian crisis and the impact of inflation on energy and food security, it is understandable for some countries to “swing back” in their climate policies in the short term, but in the process of recovery, consideration must be given to building a new pattern of net-zero emissions or carbon neutrality in the future.
On the one hand, countries need to better deal with some existing short-term problems, and at the same time find a path of just transition in the process of recovery and addressing challenges.
We must work together to bridge the gap and reduce possible risks and crises.
Only when all countries make steady progress together can we move towards a low-carbon and sustainable future together.