CHINA'S SOLUTION TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
ONDecember 12, H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China delivered a speech entitled "Building on Past Achievements and Launching a New Journey for Global Climate Actions" at the Climate Ambition Summit.
The speech comprehensively elaborated China's view on global climate governance and put forward 3 proposals, namely, to close ranks and make new advances in climate governance that features cooperation and win-win, to raise ambition and foster a new architecture of climate governance where every party does its part, and to boost confidence and pursue a new approach to climate governance that highlights green recovery.
1. China's vision and roadmap addressing global climate change
The Paris Agreement is a landmark document in the history of mankind to address climate change. China has made important contributions to adopting the Paris Agreement and has made active efforts toward implementing it. In September, President Xi Jinping announced that China would scale up its nationally determined contributions and adopt more vigorous policies and measures, aiming to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
At the Climate Ambition Summit, President Xi Jinping further announced a specific roadmap for China to achieve the goal of peaking carbon emissions. According to the roadmap, by 2030, China will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, increase the forest stock volume by 6 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.
China's vision and roadmap testifies to China's consistent position of seeking solidarity, promoting cooperation, firmly supporting multilateralism and the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. It also injects strong political impetus into the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the global climate governance process and the post-pandemic green recovery, demonstrating China's firm determination to tackle climate change and responsibility to honor its commitments, which have been widely praised by the international community.
2. Addressing climate change requires international cooperation
In the face of the global challenge of climate change, no country can stay immune. Only together can we effectively address it. From emissions peak to carbon neutrality, China needs no more than 40 years, while the EU needs about 60 years, the US 45 years. As the largest developing country, China faces enormous challenges in achieving this goal and will need to make arduous efforts. Even so, China will continue to make great efforts in addressing climate change, actively participate in the multilateral process of climate change, and firmly uphold the process of global climate governance. This is China's solemn commitment to the world.
We are pleased to see that under the advocacy of China, the EU, the UN and other parties, the international community has formed a positive synergy in jointly addressing climate change and accelerating global climate governance. At the Climate Ambition Summit, over 20 countries put forward their goals for carbon neutrality and more than 40 countries made new commitments to scaling up nationally determined contributions. China stands ready to work with other countries to advance the sustained and steady implementation of the Paris Agreement and set the global response to climate change on a new journey.
3. China-Zambia cooperation on climate change have achieved fruitful results and have great potentials
Global climate change has had a negative impact on Zambia. Over the past decade, Zambia has suffered from persistent drought, extreme high temperatures and floods, which have led to difficulties such as reduced grain production, damaged infrastructure and power shortage. Those consequences have constrained Zambia's economic development and improvement of people's livelihood. As a reliable partner, China shares Zambia's feelings and has all along supported Zambia in tackling climate change.
To help Zambia better cope with drought, China has drilled about 1,000 wells and provided food aid in recent years. China has established an agricultural demonstration center to share agricultural technologies and support Zambia’s agricultural modernization. The Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station jointly built by China and Zambia will not only provide reliable electricity, but also contribute to global emission reduction.
Besides, Chinese enterprises have invested in industrial parks in Zambia and built a number of plants of building materials and agricultural products processing, supporting Zambia to enhance its economic resilience and diversification.
The earth is the common home of mankind, and addressing climate change is the responsibility of all countries.
It is the shared dream of the Chinese and Zambian people to build a beautiful homeland. China is ready to deepen cooperation with Zambia in agriculture, infrastructure and manufacturing, expand exchanges and cooperation in clean energy, disaster response and wildlife protection, and jointly embark on a path of green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable development.