China shows that low-carbon path offers new economic opportunities, officials say at UN summit
People from across the world congregated in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh to attend the COP27 UN Climate Summit on Nov 7. The meetings last from Nov 6-18. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
The world needs to act urgently to increase the political will to fight climate change and transform words into actions, which was described at the opening on Nov 6 of a key global conference on climate change as “humanity’s greatest challenge” in modern times.
“Today, a new era begins, and we begin to do things differently,” Simon Stiell, the United Nations’ climate change executive secretary, said at the opening ceremony of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
“Paris gave us the agreement. Glasgow gave us the plan. And Sharm El-Sheikh shifts us to implementation,” he said, referring to two previous COP sessions held in France and Scotland.
“We must demonstrate this transformational shift to implementation, put in negotiations into concrete actions. And every corner of human activity must align with our Paris commitment of pursuing efforts to limit” the global temperature increase to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels, he said.
With intensified havoc caused by climate change-induced extreme weather across the globe, the UN climate conference has prompted high expectations from around the world to find solutions to climate change.
Much of the agenda at this year’s conference focuses on implementation of major targets reached during previous climate summits, such as developed countries providing $100 billion each year to help poorer countries fight climate change.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, president of COP27, said the conference will become a milestone for countries in renewing commitment and scaling up ambitions and for seriously implementing the agreements and plans to efficiently deal with “humanity’s biggest challenge” in modern times.
“All types of evidence undoubtedly show that climate change is a real threat to people’s lives, wherever they live ... The development track that humanity has endorsed since the Industrial Revolution is no longer sustainable,” he said at the opening ceremony.
Shoukry cited the floods in Pakistan that claimed hundreds of lives over the summer, the extremely hot summer in North America and Europe, and the Horn of Africa drought, which has left millions of people on the verge of starvation.
He called for rich countries to honor their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to fight climate change.
Li Gao, chief of climate change affairs at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said implementation of existing policies, plans and projects should be a primary task of COP27.
Tackling climate change can provide new opportunities for economic growth, as demonstrated by China’s successful experiences in developing new energy, senior officials attending the COP27 summit said on Nov 8.
“Coping with climate change is a challenge and an opportunity as well,” said Zhao Yingmin, Chinese vice-minister of ecology and environment, during a side event at the conference. “Data have shown transforming to a low-carbon economy has provided great development opportunities.”
China achieved economic development at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent between 2012 and last year, a period during which the nation’s emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of gross domestic product fell by a third.
China has also become a world leader in new energy development, driven by a low-carbon transformation. China’s electric vehicle market accounts for more than half of the global market, and the country has remained at the top spot for many years in terms of total installed capacity for wind and solar power, Zhao said.
Manuela Ferro, regional vice-president for East Asia and Pacific at the World Bank, said China has made remarkable progress in renewable energy, and accumulated experiences useful for many other countries.
“I think that there are many lessons from China from both its development story and developing (in) a more sustainable, climate-wise way,” she said.
Despite challenges, China is well positioned to meet its climate commitments of achieving peak carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, a World Bank report said last month.
In the renewable energy sector, China has already created about 54 million “green jobs”, with more than 4 million jobs in renewable energy, the report said.
Zhao said on Nov 6 that the Chinese government attaches high importance to managing climate change, and that it will unswervingly follow the path of low-carbon development.
China will accelerate integrating the reduction of carbon emissions with high-quality economic development, he said.
Edith Mutethya in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this story.
