Nation leads global climate change efforts to reduce emissions
China, with the aim to fulfill its commitment to the handling of global climate change, will gradually reduce and remove the subsidies to the development of new energy products by 2020 to enhance their competitiveness in the market.
“In confronting climate change, China, whether domestically or globally, has been playing a leading role. China’s efforts have also been recognized and praised by others,” said He Jiankun, vice chairman of National Experts Panel on Climate Change of China, on Tuesday at the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland.
The international community looks to China’s actions on carbon emissions, which are determined by China’s status, He told the press at the China Pavilion.
“A country’s emissions quantity is one thing, but more importantly, more attention should be given to the country’s contributions to confronting climate change, as well as its influence in the process,” he said.
As of 2017, China had cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 46 percent from the 2005 level, fulfilling its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 to 45 percent from the 2005 level by 2020.
As China is a rapidly developing country, He noted that while its overall carbon emissions continue to increase, its emissions per GDP are declining, which means the economic benefits per CO2 unit are rising.
Meanwhile, the rate of decline in China is 4 percent, faster than that of many developed countries.
He said that from 2015 to 2030, China will build new energy and renewable energy generators that would provide as much power as all types of US generators.
He told the Global Times that China supports and subsidizes new energy products where new technologies are developed. When subsidies are gradually decreased and removed by 2020, the cost of new energy could already be very low and competitive in the market.
When asked if China felt more pressure after the US abandoned the Paris agreement, He told the Global Times that other countries expect China to take a greater leadership role.
He noted. “We will base our efforts on our development stage and do what we are capable of.”