Emission Reduction – China’s Commitment and Progress
By staff reporter LI WUZHOU
CHINA has been a proactive participant in confronting environmental issues since the early 1990s, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established and the UN-led international climate change negotiations started to tackle climate challenges. Among its commitments over the years since then is a pledge to reduce emissions. China has since strived to fulfill its responsibilities and obligations.
The biggest developing country in the world, China is still in the process of urbanization and industrialization. Hence, it faces a dilemma between socioeconomic development and ecological protection.
In spite of grave challenges, China understands well the importance of protecting the well-being of humankind and future generations, and has established environmental protection as one of its basic national policies. In 2007, China became the first developing country to formulate and implement a national scheme to deal with climate change. Two years later, it announced a 40 to 45 percent cut in carbon emission intensity by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. At the same time, this binding index has been integrated into the country’s medium-term and long-term plans for the national economy and social development. Relevant supervision and assessment systems are also in force.
In 2012, China confirmed that ecological health was equally important as other social facets like the economy, politics, and culture. Nationwide pollution control accelerated.
At the UN Climate Summit in New York in September 2014, as Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said that China would set forth the post-2020 action target as soon as possible and strive to achieve the peaking of carbon dioxide emissions by an early date.
His words were echoed two months later when China unveiled its climate change goals after 2020, which include an increase in the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030. According to the U.S. Brookings Institution, this target will require China to deploy a generation capacity that is close to the total current electricity generation capacity in the U.S.
Effective Emission Reduction
In order to deal with the hazardous smog that has hit many provinces and municipalities, China unveiled the Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in September 2013.
On his very first day last February as newly appointed Minister for Environmental Protection, Chen Jining reviewed the previous year’s list of measures to tackle air pollution and smog. The data revealed that over six million vehicles that did not meet emissions standards were scrapped in 2014, surpassing the sum of the three preceding years. Meanwhile, 55,000 coal-fired boilers were shut down, and the newly-increased gas consumption reached 2.5 billion cubic meters due to the nationwide project of switching from coal to natural gas. Desulfurization, denitrification, and dust elimination devices for coal-fueled power generators were upgraded, with respective capacities of 130 million kw, 260 million kw, and 240 million kw. Moreover, 2,080 cases involving environmental violations were reported to the police nationwide, twice the sum of the previous decade. At a press conference for this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC) in March, Chen pointed out: “No country in the world is making such great efforts as China to combat air pollution within so short a time. We are adopting stringent measures to tackle formidable challenges.”
In addition, an action plan to improve the country’s water quality was issued in April this year, the targets of which include shutting down small and outdated factories in such sectors as paper making, tanning, printing and dyeing, electroplating, and insecticides by the end of 2016. According to the action plan, special supervision and rectification programs would be introduced covering 10 major polluting industries like papermaking, coking, nitrogenous fertilizer, and nonferrous materials.
These measures have proved successful. In 2014, the PM 2.5 density dropped by 11.1 percent on average in 74 Chinese cities that had adopted a new air quality standard. In the region around the capital, the figure decreased by 12.3 percent.
Fulfilling International Obligations
China endeavors to fulfill its obligations to the international community. It has participated in a number of international environmental action plans and treaties. For example, it has joined several schemes launched by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) relating to the northwest Pacific and the seas of East Asia, and the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities.
Cooperation with developed countries has been enhanced as well so as to glean advanced ideas and technologies that facilitate reaching China’s targets on energy conservation and emission reduction. By adhering to the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, China shares its experience in balancing development and environmental protection with other developing countries. What’s more, it works with its neighboring and surrounding countries to jointly solve environmental problems.
Under the framework of South-South cooperation, China proactively assists developing countries. For instance, it has launched biogas technology cooperation with Tunisia and several other countries; hydroelectric power facilities in countries like Cameroon have been built with assistance from China; and Mongolia and Papua New Guinea have cooperated with China in the fields of solar power and wind power generation. To date, China has helped Africa to carry out 105 clean energy and water supply projects. In 2012, China began to assist some African countries in building automatic meteorological observation stations, upper-air observation radar stations, and forest protection facilities. It further helped by carrying out exchanges of personnel and organizing training programs in order to enhance Africa’s capacity for tackling climate change and protecting ecological environment.
Since 2011, China has earmarked a total of RMB 2.7 billion to helping developing countries build up their abilities to cope with climate change, and has provided relevant training programs to nearly 2,000 officials and professionals from developing countries.
At the UN Climate Summit in September 2014, Zhang Gaoli declared that China would double its annual financial support for South-South cooperation in tackling climate change and set up the South-South Cooperation Fund on Climate Change. China also committed to providing US $6 million to support the UN Secretary General in advancing South-South cooperation in dealing with climate change. In the future, China will continue its assistance to developing countries under the framework of South-South cooperation and so jointly make progress towards environmental goals.
Zhang also stressed that, as a responsible major country, China would handle climate change issues with greater effort to achieve better results, and take the initiative to undertake international obligations in conformity with its own national conditions, development stage, and actual capabilities.
