Climate: three days before COP26, new Chinese commitments freshly received – Orange news

AFP, published on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 7:20 p.m.

Three days before the opening of COP26, China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, officially submitted on Thursday new highly anticipated climate commitments, freshly welcomed by climate advocates.

Beijing’s new “national contribution” (NDC) was eagerly awaited, with some observers hoping it could boost ambitions for this crucial climate conference, as the devastating effects of climate change are increasingly felt : mega-fires, heat waves, floods …

It unsurprisingly takes up the main commitments already formulated by Chinese President Xi Jinping: to reach its peak of emissions “before 2030” and carbon neutrality “before 2060”.

These new commitments published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also provide for a reduction in carbon intensity (CO2 emissions compared to GDP) of more than 65% compared to 2005.

The previous Chinese NDC pledged to reduce its carbon intensity by between 60 and 65% by 2030 and to reach its peak of emissions “around 2030”.

In its contribution, Beijing, responsible for more than a quarter of global emissions, recalls that developed countries must “assume their historic responsibilities and continue to resolutely take the lead in reducing emissions”.

China is also committed to increasing the share of non-fossil fuels to 25% in its consumption, against 20% in its previous NDC, in particular with the increase of “its installed capacity of solar and wind energy to 1.2 billion kW by 2030 “and to increase its forest” stock “by 6 billion cubic meters compared to 2005.

According to the Paris agreement, signed in 2015 and which shows the ambition to contain global warming well below the + 2 ° C and if possible + 1.5 ° C mark compared to the pre-industrial era, signatory countries must file an upwardly revised NDC every 5 years.

– Small steps –

But for many observers, Beijing’s contribution is not ambitious enough, while the UN said on Monday that the climate commitments made in recent weeks are still leading the world towards a “catastrophic” warming of + 2.7 ° vs.

For Li Shuo of Greenpeace China, “it casts a shadow over the global climate effort. (…) The country seems reluctant to embrace stronger short-term goals and has missed the opportunity to show ambition. . The world cannot afford this to be the last word. “

For Lauri Myllyvirta of the Clean Air and Energy Research Center (CREA), China is setting President Xi’s commitments in stone, but “does not shed light on the trajectory of the coming decade in terms of emissions “.

Helen Mountford, vice president of the World Resources Institute, sees it as a “modest improvement”, saying that “if the world is to have a chance to tackle the climate crisis, China, like other major emitters, must move from the policy of small steps to giant leaps “.

The boss of the CNUCCC, Patricia Espinosa, during an online press briefing Thursday evening, declined to comment on the new Chinese NDC, indicating that she had not had time to study it in detail. She said, however, that it had been “clear for some time” that China intended “to translate into its NDC the political announcements” of President Xi.

She considered that it was now necessary to work to achieve its objective of carbon neutrality “as quickly as possible”. And to say to China, “like other countries, + all that is very good, but how are you going to do it exactly? +”. They should also be encouraged to “constantly revise their NDC” upwards, she adds.

For its part, Australia, the world’s largest exporter of coal, whose Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison regularly affirms its support for the mining and gas industry, also filed a new NDC on Thursday.

As Scott Morrison announced earlier this week, the main addition is a net zero emissions target for 2050. But the text doesn’t provide any specific details on how to get there.