Food & Climate
The New York Times said that the fleet of electric cars (EVs) pulling up to COP30 conference hall was mostly Chinese, does this mean that the country becomes the defender of international cooperation on climate change?
The response came from the state-sponsored newspaper Global Times the day before COP30 opened, which said: “China has become the defender of international cooperation on climate change”.
China’s commitment to “dual carbon” goals will be the “driving force” of building a “beautiful China”, said an article by the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily under the byline of Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, said the country is “globally recognised as the [one] with the strongest determination, the most vigorous actions” on tackling climate issues, reported news agency Xinhua. John Kerry, former US climate envoy, told the Shanghai-based Paper: “The global climate agenda has undergone a fundamental shift, and calls are being made for China to continue playing a leading role in the event of a possible absence of the US.”
Meanwhile, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “urged” China’s vice premier Ding Xuexiang at a pre-COP30 meeting to “join financing initiatives for climate transition and resilience” and “help fund green technology and investment projects”, said the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), according the reports that seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
Just ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP30)
Just ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, China has sent a series of positive signals underscoring its ambitions and achievements in tackling climate change. These include a Chinese official stating that the scale and difficulty of China’s carbon reduction efforts are rarely seen in the world.
China’s role at this year’s COP is being closely watched by global media, which highlights its growing leadership in driving the global energy transition.
At the same time, Beijing has also become the defender of international cooperation on climate change, working hand in hand with other nations to advance collective action.
China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told the media that China’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) target has been historically expanded to cover the entire economy and include all greenhouse gases, marking the first time the country has set an absolute reduction target for total greenhouse gas emissions – demonstrating its strongest determination and commitment to date, according to a video published by China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday.
Huang emphasized that for most developed countries, the time span between reaching their emissions peak and achieving noticeable reductions ranges from 20 to 50 years, which is incomparable to China’s planned decline of around five years after peaking.
Both the magnitude (7 to 10 percent) and the absolute volume (1 to 1.5 billion tons) of China’s pledged reductions significantly exceed those achieved by the US and Europe over comparable periods.
The minister also said China remains a developing country, and setting carbon reduction targets even before reaching its emissions peak is a task of extraordinary difficulty.
China’s white paper titled
On Saturday, China released a white paper titled “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality China’s Plans and Solutions,” which presents a comprehensive overview of China’s major achievements in pursuing peak carbon and carbon neutrality over the last five years and shares China’s approaches, actions and experience, per Xinhua.
This year’s summit comes as the US once again withdraws from the Paris Agreement and the world experiences yet another year of record heat and extreme weather.
“China’s goals are particularly important for two reasons: It is the world’s largest producer of emissions … And it’s the global leader in the production of green technologies from wind and solar power to electric vehicles,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.
China “leads the world when it comes to adopting clean energy and producing the equipment needed for the transition to a decarbonized economy, including solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles,” according to the Nature.
The New York Times took note of Chinese EV’s presence during the conference. It said that “the fleet of electric cars pulling up to the conference hall was mostly Chinese.”
The report noted that although the car that carried Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula, whose country host this year’s COP30, was a Chevrolet, but it was among a fleet of Chinese electric and hybrid cars assembled to shuttle delegations to the summit’s opening on Thursday.
The Guardian noted that during this year’s conference, “cooperation among countries in the Global South – which could include China, and some of the middle-income countries that have already started on a greener path – will also be key.”