Climate change vows urged to be honored

While vowing to maximize efforts in carbon emission reduction, China urged developed countries to close gaps in support committed to the Third World for their pre-2020 climate actions as delegates from almost 200 countries gather in Madrid for the United Nations climate change conference.

“The biggest problem in the current multilateral climate process is developed countries’ lack of political will in offering support (to the developing countries),” said Lu Xinming, deputy director of climate change in China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Developed countries had promised to provide $100 billion annually by 2020 for developing countries, a figure that was included in the landmark Paris agreement on climate change in 2015.

Lu, who is also deputy secretarygeneral of the Chinese delegation, said, however, that many developed countries have labeled other financial support they offer as climate-related and have calculated that support as such.

He said China is hopeful that the conference — which began on Monday and runs through Dec 13 — will clearly specify the measures wealthier countries will take to honor their pre-2020 targets in reducing carbon emissions and to offer the support they pledged to developing countries.

“They should offer explicit plans to further close the gaps in support and ensure they won’t transfer the responsibilities they should shoulder to developing countries after 2020,” he noted.

He also said the support should come from public funds in a transparent, predictable, sustainable and timely manner.

With the annual $100 billion support offered before 2020 as a “starting point”, developed countries should also hammer out a detailed road map and timetable for a new post-2020 target in its support to the Third World, he added.

Sun Jin, special representative for climate change affairs of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China will maximize its efforts to make the largest possible contribution in mitigating global warming.

“As a responsible developing major power, we are willing to shoulder the due international obligations. That is to say, as our capacity allows, we will make allout efforts,” Sun said.

He said though the nation is currently the largest carbon emitter in the world because of the size of the country and also its development stage, China is also the largest contributor in carbon emission reduction.

China outpaces all other countries in the development of electric vehicles, investment in renewable energy, afforestation and desert control.

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP last year in China was 45.8 percent lower than 2005 levels, achieving the nation’s goal of decreasing carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent ahead of the 2020 deadline. The decline can be translated into a total emissions reduction of 5.26 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

It also said there had been 976,000 individual charging units for electric vehicles across the country as of the end of May, and China came second to no country with 401,000 public charging units.