A new claim by China will display “the highest possible ambition” in the fight against climate change.
The world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter could introduce new and more severe carbon targets next year, according to experts and policy advisors.
China is becoming a pivotal driving force behind worldwide initiatives to overcome global warming.
In a statement issued on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on 29 June, Saturday, China’s top diplomat State Councilor Wang Yi, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres vowed to “scale up efforts to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis”.
China and France also assured to “update” their contributions beyond their current ones to reflect “their highest possible commitment.”
“I believe this is the first time the Chinese government has officially talked about updating their nationally determined contributions,” claimed Zou Ji, President of the Energy Foundation in Beijing and a former member of China’s climate negotiating team.
Li Shuo, senior climate advisor with environmental group Greenpeace, attributed that the commitment to “update” rather than reaffirm current contributions would also suggest that stronger pledges will be made in the future. He also added that, ‘’highest possible ambition’ can’t be there if there is no desire at all from Beijing.’’
China aims to bring emissions to its pinnacle by “around 2030” and raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its total energy mix to upto 20% by the end of the next decade, up from 15% in 2020.
China’s Ministry of the Environment and Ecology did not pay any heed to the request. However, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a government think tank, is advising Beijing to introduce more stringent climate targets in its next five-year plan.
The CCICED called last month for China to bring emissions to a peak by 2025, raise the share of non-fossil fuels in the energy mix to 25% by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060-2070, and the target, if achieved, will be a great milestone by China and its generations to come.
“It is very challenging but China still has a lot of room to improve and it should regard it as part of its own process of modernization,” said Zou, who was involved in drawing up the CCICED recommendations.
