Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the European Union, made a little clarification on how to deal with climate change

Source: Overseas Network

According to the WeChat public account of the Chinese mission to the European Union, on November 10, 2021, Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese mission to the European Union, was interviewed by Sam Fleming, director of the Brussels bureau of the Financial Times, and journalist Andy Bounds. Some of the transcripts are as follows:

Financial Times: The 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is being held in Glasgow, why has China not signed a commitment to phase out coal-fired power plants? How do you respond to the perception that China has failed to show sufficient ambition in addressing climate change?

Zhang Ming: Climate change is a matter of great concern to the people of all countries in the world, including China, and it is also in a very important position on the agenda of the Chinese government. China has taken the initiative to shoulder international responsibilities in line with its own national conditions and has continuously increased its efforts to deal with climate change. At the COP26 summit, President Xi Jinping delivered a written speech, proposing to maintain multilateral consensus in response to climate change, focus on pragmatic actions, and accelerate green transformation. These three points are the three key tasks of the Chinese government in responding to the change of climate, and also represent the consensus and interests of the international community.

China has issued a working framework document for the "double carbon" target, published the "Carbon Peak Action Plan by 2030", and a timetable and roadmap for achieving the "double carbon" goal. Recently, China formally submitted two important documents to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, proposing new nationally determined contribution targets and elaborating on the goals and policies for long-term low-emission development of greenhouse gases by the middle of this century.

China has done a lot of real things, non-fossil energy accounted for 16%, renewable energy generation is the world's first, afforestation results, the past 20 years of the world's new green area more than 1/4 in China. China is also building a number of wind power photovoltaic projects with a total scale of nearly 30 million kilowatts.

China is a developing country, we have just solved the problem of poverty in history, and the emissions at this stage are still subsistence emissions, which are fundamentally different from the luxury emissions of developed countries. There must be a fair platform for doing anything, otherwise it will be difficult to do well. On the issue of gas change, the fair platform is the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". Frankly speaking, in recent years developed countries have rarely talked about this principle, which is a bad tendency.

Speaking of China's commitment not to participate in the phase-out of coal-fired power plants, I would like to clarify that China's commitment to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 is facing a major task of economic and energy transformation, so focusing on the development of clean energy and gradually replacing fossil energy in the process of clean energy development is our path to climate change. It's a gradual process, and China is a big country with a population of 1.4 billion, like a 500,000-ton tanker turning on the surface of the sea, possibly in a huge arc.

China has made important achievements in promoting clean energy to replace coal power. Coal's share of the energy mix has fallen below 60 percent, up from 90 percent a few decades ago. Our goal is to strictly control the growth of coal consumption in the five years starting this year, that is, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. In the next five years, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, coal consumption will be gradually reduced and carbon peaks will be achieved by 2030. This is a targeted initiative based on scientific assessment. To deal with climate change, we must not only see carbon reduction, see green, but also see development. Green and development should be integrated. If the skin does not exist, the hair will be attached. Without development, green will not make sense.

In fact, China's per capita carbon emissions today are only about half that of the United States. The carbon in the atmosphere is not emitted today, but accumulated in nearly 300 years since the Industrial Revolution, which has formed the greenhouse effect that is more obvious today. I see a set of figures that since 1750, China's carbon emissions have been about 220 billion tons, and the United States is about 410 billion tons, but China's population is at least four times that of the United States.

We often talk about carbon emissions now, but we should also take carbon consumption into account, which will also be beneficial for us to understand and cope with climate change. Developing countries have weak consumption capacity and correspondingly less carbon consumption, while developed countries have stronger consumption capacity and correspondingly more carbon consumption. So, should the greenhouse gases emitted in the production of consumer goods be borne jointly by consumers and producers? I am saying this in the hope of helping us to take a comprehensive and authentic view of the responsibilities that different types of countries should assume in responding to climate change. There is no doubt that the commitments announced by China will be fulfilled by us. But I think that developed countries should not blindly put pressure on developing countries, and may have to examine whether their commitments are enough and how they should be fulfilled.

Some claim that China's absence from COP26 is a mistake, and it seems that these people have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement for too long and know little about the significant progress that has been made in the global response to climate change in recent years, which has been strongly promoted by China.

In 2015, China, Europe and the United States joined forces to lead to the Paris Agreement. This is an encouraging thing. But shortly thereafter, our American partners withdrew from the Paris Agreement. The withdrawal of the United States has caused a serious setback to the global response to climate change. We have been in Brussels for several years, and we all remember how depressed and anxious the people in Brussels were at that time. I also remember very clearly how excited and delighted the people of Brussels were when President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2020, announcing China's "double carbon" goal. In the year since, important economies in the international community have announced their own "double carbon" plans. The global response to climate change has also regained strong momentum.

China has never been, and cannot be absent, from the global response to climate change. Our goals have been set and the road map is clear. What we need to do now is practical action, not rhetoric, and will go all out to achieve the set carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. Empty talk, blame-shifting, and turning the cause of dealing with gas into a tool for groundless attacks and confrontations are all extremely irresponsible and harmful acts.

China will go all out to fulfill its commitments and achieve our goals. We also encourage developed countries to provide effective financial, technological and capacity-building support for the energy transition in developing countries, which are very necessary. It's better to sit up than to get up.