Coming together on climate

Sun Weidong

Sun Weidong
Chinese ambassador

The 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), which is being held in Madrid, Spain, is currently one of the focuses of global attention. The key objective is to complete negotiations on the rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which is an important basis for the full operationalisation of the agreement and is also significant to the authority and effectiveness of multilateralism. Sharing similar positions, China and India become important partners in promoting the achievements of the conference.

On December 11, Zhao Yingmin, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, stressed in Madrid that no country could stay immune in the face of climate change, and all countries need to work together to cope with the challenge. The Paris Agreement is a valuable achievement of multilateralism. China expects the conference to implement the agreement and uphold multilateralism. All parties need to work hard to complete the negotiations on the remaining issues in the implementation rules of the agreement, especially Article 6, which is the main task of this conference. China attaches great importance to the use of market mechanism to deal with climate change, and takes the construction of national carbon emission trading market as an important measure to deal with climate change and promote the construction of ecological civilisation. The Chinese government regards mitigation and adaptation to climate change as an important part of its national strategy.

Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India, also pointed out at the COP25 that it was time to look in the mirror to check the fulfilment of commitments, especially for the developed countries, as we are near the end of the pre-2020 period.

As the world’s two largest developing countries, China and India should not only complete the arduous tasks of economic development, poverty alleviation and improving people’s livelihood, but also take effective measures to cope with the disasters and risks brought by climate change, such as extreme weather and environmental changes. From 1984 to 2018, China’s direct economic loss caused by meteorological disasters was about $1 trillion. According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020, released by an NGO, German Watch, India suffered the maximum number of deaths — 2,081 — from climate-triggered extreme weather events in 2018, and was second in terms of economic losses.

China and India are important contributors to the global response to climate change. Both have actively participated in global climate governance, issued joint statements and signed MoUs through multilateral and bilateral mechanisms, such as BASIC countries and China-India Climate Change Consultation, and expressed common interests and concerns. China and India agree that we should adhere to the principle of fairness, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities to deal with climate change. Developed and developing countries have different historical responsibilities for causing climate change. Developed countries should help developing countries in terms of funds and technology. In recent years, China and India have taken a series of effective measures to deal with this change. In 2018, China’s carbon emission intensity decreased by 45.8% compared with that in 2005, reaching the commitment of reducing the carbon emission intensity in 2020 by 40%-45% compared with 2005 in advance, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption has reached 14.3%, and the power generation of renewable energy accounted for 26.7% of the total generation. India has also set the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to reduce the carbon emission intensity by 33%-35% on the basis of 2005, by 2030. New and renewable energy is developing fast in India, and the total installed capacity has reached 80 gigawatts. Earlier this year, a NASA study showed that China and India contributed the most to global greening, contributing one-third of the green area growth in the past two decades.

Cooperation of China and India has a good foundation and great potential in addressing climate change. In recent years, in addition to cooperation in global climate governance, both countries have also carried out extensive cooperation in specific areas, such as marine climate, polar scientific research, disaster prevention and mitigation, and other fields. They have signed relevant agreements and implemented personnel exchanges, joint research and development, joint exercises, and other forms of cooperation. In Chennai, the zero-emission, pure electric buses, jointly produced by enterprises of the two countries, have been sent to the market all across India. The Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences are exploring the possibility to hold the China-India Climate Change and Green Development Forum in New Delhi next year.

China and India can further strengthen cooperation in technology and experience in coping with climate change and benefit each other. The carbon emission of service industry is relatively low, and the service industry in India is developing well. China can learn relevant experiences from India, and both countries can carry out extensive cooperation in the IT and financial service industry, etc. NASSCOM, Infosys, NIIT and other Indian IT companies are expanding their business and growing rapidly in China, with huge space in the future. At the same time, China has some advantages in electric vehicles, smart grid, energy saving and emission reduction technologies, and welcomes cooperation with India. In addition, China and India can carry out ‘China India plus’ cooperation, jointly carry out projects of new and renewable energy, energy conservation, environmental protection in other countries, to make greater contributions to handle climate change and build a community with a shared future for mankind.