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2021-10-29 13:50:00

CHINA CLIMATE TARGETS

CHINA CLIMATE TARGETS

PLATTS - 29 Oct 2021 - China has reaffirmed its climate goals in its Nationally Determined Contributions submitted overnight ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

In the latest NDC, China stated that it aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

This is in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping's earlier carbon neutrality pledges and more recent announcements of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality roadmaps by the State Council, the country's topmost executive body.

China's NDC also said the country will lower its carbon intensity by over 65% by 2030 from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25% by 2030, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1,200 GW by 2030.

It remains unclear whether Beijing will adopt any stricter targets during the summit. Developing countries are expected to enter negotiations over critical issues like funding for new technology development and carbon offsets. So far, Xi has not confirmed physical attendance at the summit.

China's targets so far had been announced in its "1+N" domestic climate policies, where "1" refers to a high-level policy framework for achieving carbon neutrality, and "N" refers to a set of supporting policy instruments that include an action plan on reaching peak emissions by 2030.

On Oct 27, the State Council of China hosted a press briefing in Beijing about the country's priorities and plans at COP26.

Government officials expressed concerns over insufficient climate finance provided by developed countries to developing countries, said finalizing Paris Agreement Article 6 was a top priority, and advocated emission reductions certified before 2020 to be used for meeting NDC targets and trading in the international carbon market.

The issue of providing at least $100 billion in climate finance per year by 2020 to developing countries has been at the core of climate talks. "This has become the biggest hurdle for the multilateral collaboration to progress," Ye Min, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment or MEE, said at the news conference.

"In previous meetings, developing countries have been disappointed as the climate finance and adaptability issues, which we have been deeply concerned about, have not been taken seriously and effectively addressed," Ye explained.

"Developed countries should fill the existing gap in the $100 billion annual climate finance, and this is a vital issue that influences mutual trust between developing and developed countries," Ye said.

"We are suspicious about developed countries' actual purposes, whether they intend to support developing countries and jointly cope with climate change, or just put their emission reduction responsibilities on developing countries' shoulders," he added.

Ye said some developed countries were pushing to tighten climate goals without fulfilling their own commitments. "All parties shall realize that, without taking any action, whatever goal is decided is merely a castle in the air," he said.

"Climate finance provided by developed countries has been far from sufficient to support developing countries' needs to adapt to climate change," Sun Zhen, Deputy Director General of MEE, said at the same news conference.

Article 6

Article 6 of the UNFCCC Rulebook aims to create an international carbon market governed by the UN that enables carbon trading by both the public and private sectors from anywhere in the world. Given the complexity of building an international carbon trading mechanism, negotiations around Article 6 have been long and tedious.

"The top priority for COP26 is to conclude the discussions around Paris Agreement, especially the market mechanism, namely the remaining issues under Article 6," Sun said.

Chinese officials also called for allowing carbon credits issued prior to 2020 to be used to fulfill emissions goals targets. "We are open to discussion about this issue to figure out a solution," Sun added.

China started its domestic voluntary carbon market in 2012 but suspended the registration of new projects that generate carbon credits called China Certified Emission Reductions, or CCERs, in 2017 to refine the regulatory framework.

The environment ministry expects to resume new project registration for generating CCERs at some point, but so far CCERs circulating in the market have been generated prior to 2017, and hence the demand for older certificates to be recognized.

As of Sept. 30, 2021, China's total trading volume of greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction had exceeded 334 million mtCO2e, with turnover approaching Yuan 3 billion ($469 million), according to a white paper titled "Responding to Climate Change: China's Policies and Actions" published on Oct. 27.

China's carbon intensity in 2020 was 18.8% lower than that in 2015, compared to the binding target of 18% set in the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020); the figure was also 48.4% lower than in 2005, according to the white paper.

The drop in carbon intensity translates to a total reduction of about 5.8 billion mt of CO2 emissions from 2005 to 2020, the white paper said.

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Tags: CHINA, CLIMATE