POZNAN, Poland, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The Chinese Government and United Nations, China presented in Poznan, on December 8, a side-event illustrating studies included in the post-2012 Chinese strategy on Climate Change. The studies were undertaken as of the UN/China Climate Change Partnership Framework which brings together 9 UN agencies and 11 Chinese national entities led by the National Development Reform Commission.
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The studies carried out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Tsinghua and Renmin Universities, focus on three aspects: the Carbon Budget; the proposal of innovative mechanisms for technology transfer and development; and the analysis of three energy-intensive sectors: power, cement and aluminium.
The first study, related to "Carbon Budget" discloses the Chinese search for a principle of "equity" among the individuals living on the planet, and acknowledging to each of them a due quantum of emissions, related to his/her basic needs. The concept follows the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" in bearing the burden of climate change solution, and the one of "per-capita emissions", that is aimed at guaranteeing their development rights.
Mr Su Wei, Director General of the Department of Climate Change of NDRC and the Deputy Head of the Chinese delegation in Poznan, declared, "The principle of 'common but differentiated responsibility' and equity are the two fundamental principles guiding international cooperation on climate change. The development space and right of developing countries must be assured. Developing countries need carbon space for their industrialization and urbanization. And developed countries shall transfer environmentally friendly technologies to developing countries to help them to address climate change."
The second study aims to identify a new mechanism to facilitate the technological transfer between developed and developing countries, through a new institutional arrangement under the UNFCCC, and a financial mechanism based on the Public-Private Partnership principle.
Professor Zou Ji from Renmin explained, "Substantially it deals with the institution of a body, parallel to SBI and SBSTA, that has the responsibility of planning, coordinating, organizing, assessing and monitoring the Development & Transfer (D&T) of Environmentally Sound Technologies, to promote technology information and experience exchange between different stakeholders. This subsidiary body is an operational organization reporting to COP. Under the subsidiary body, a strategic planning committee and several technical panels are also needed."
According to Tariq Banuri, from UNDESA, "The basic idea behind the Chinese study is the opportunity to develop Public-Private Partnerships by linking public finance with carbon markets, capital markets, and technology markets, sequencing the available resources and leveraging a larger amount of private finance by a smaller amount of public finance".
The third component of the study is focused on a sectoral analysis of power, cement and aluminium energy-intensive sectors, which are considered the backbone of the two-digit Chinese GDP growth over the last few decades.
Professor Wang Can from Tsinghua University stated, "The use of coal is still massive. There are enormous social costs in any attempt to adopt restructuring policies in these sectors, such as closing the smaller plants and making bigger ones more efficient."
Mrs Silvie Lemmet, from UNEP stated, "Energy efficiency and emission reductions in these sectors are of crucial importance to China's efforts to tackle climate change and China has made great achievements in this regard."
Mr Su Wei added, "Last year saw the shutdown of 14.38 GW installed capacity, small thermal power generation units, and the elimination of 46.59 million tons of iron-smelting obsolete capacity, 37.47 million tons of steelmaking capacity and 52 million tons of cement production capacity. More than 2,000 heavily polluting papermaking plants, chemical plants and printing and dyeing mills were ordered to close down, as were 11,200 small coal mines. In the future, China will do more to combat climate change," the deputy head of Chinese delegation concluded.
Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator of in China, concluded, "These studies demonstrate the strong commitment by China to the multilateral negotiation process within the Conference of Parties. UN/UNDP intends to work closely with the Chinese government to see how best to follow on the studies with a specific emphasis on implementing key actions in energy-intensive sectors."