as climate impacts intensify, how can we accelerate action? the paper cop29 outlook international seminar successfully held
2024-09-23
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the 29th conference of the parties to the united nations framework convention on climate change (cop29) is scheduled to be held in azerbaijan in november 2024. the conference focuses on the negotiation of new climate finance targets, aiming to achieve more consensus and results through international cooperation to effectively respond to climate change. for many climate-vulnerable countries, cop29 is an important opportunity to seek key resources and commitments needed to promote low-carbon economic transformation and enhance climate resilience. against this background, in order to deeply explore the innovative models, successful cases and future prospects of developing countries in responding to climate change, on the eve of cop29, the "cop29 outlook: how to accelerate action as climate impacts intensify" international seminar hosted by the paper and organized by the climate monthly "critical point" was successfully held in beijing on september 19.
the seminar brought together guests from scientific research institutions, non-governmental organizations and the media, and conducted in-depth exchanges on core issues such as funding, technology and adaptive capacity building in global climate governance. the meeting emphasized china's positive contribution and leadership in global climate governance, especially its successful experience in promoting south-south cooperation and green economic transformation. the guests discussed extensively how to stimulate the internal vitality of developing countries, build effective cooperation mechanisms, and promote global green and low-carbon development, and provided valuable suggestions and forward-looking thinking for the upcoming cop29 conference and future global climate governance actions. through this seminar, all parties have reached a consensus, worked together to meet the challenges of climate change, and promoted the world to move towards a greener, low-carbon and sustainable future.
developing countries can learn from china's experience in climate governance
as an authoritative media that continuously pays attention to and reports in depth on climate issues, the paper has been committed to exploring and disseminating cutting-edge information and deep insights on global climate change. the paper uses the monthly climate magazine tipping point as a carrier to deeply analyze the global pulse of climate change, comprehensively cover extreme climate events, authoritatively interpret climate research results, keep up with international climate governance trends, dialogue with leaders in the climate field, tell the fate of individuals under climate change, and explore multiple paths to adapt to and solve the climate crisis.
in his speech, wu ting, editor of the paper, stressed that in the face of severe challenges brought by global climate change, green and low-carbon development is the only way to enhance resilience and achieve sustainable and high-quality development. he believes that the challenges faced by developing countries in responding to climate change are particularly daunting, and in-depth reports by news media play an irreplaceable role in building social consensus and promoting international cooperation. in the future, the paper will continue to leverage its professional advantages and social influence to promote multi-party dialogue and exchanges, calling on all parties to take the opportunity of responding to climate change to promote the global transition to a greener, low-carbon, and circular development model, and jointly explore and achieve a sustainable development path of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
in july this year, the 2025 climate transition alliance (act2025) released its latest action plan, which outlines how countries, especially developed countries, should take practical measures to support climate-vulnerable countries. these actions are indispensable for rebuilding international mutual trust and solidarity in 2024 and during cop29, but further comprehensive commitments are still needed from all countries.
professor chukwumerjie okereke, director of the center for climate change and development at the alex ekuemé federal university in nigeria and an important partner of the alliance for climate transformation 2025 (act2025), participated in the seminar via video link and made an in-depth analysis of the current status and challenges of global climate governance in his keynote speech. professor okereke stressed that although the international community has taken some actions to address climate change, the current progress has not yet entered the channel to achieve the goals of the paris agreement. he particularly pointed out that developing countries such as bangladesh, kenya and nigeria are facing the dual dilemma of resource shortages and insufficient disaster response capabilities.
as an active promoter of act2025, professor okereke introduced how the act2025 alliance formulated a priority action plan for climate change by strengthening discussions and negotiations within the united nations framework.
he put forward four expectations for the upcoming cop29 conference: first, to promote a more active and effective funding sharing mechanism; second, to strengthen the mitigation of losses and damage caused by climate change; third, to enhance climate adaptation capabilities; and fourth, to ensure adequate technical and action support for developing countries.
professor okereke spoke highly of china's contributions to green economy, solidarity and knowledge sharing, and looked forward to china's greater leadership in cop29 and future global climate governance, especially in strengthening support for vulnerable countries and promoting a fair transition in global climate governance. he called on the international community to unite and jointly promote the implementation of funding, ambition and climate resolutions to ensure that the world can move towards a more sustainable future in a fair and convenient manner.
liu shijin, the chief advisor of the china council for international cooperation on environment and development and former deputy director of the development research center of the state council, shared china's progress and successful experience in south-south cooperation, and demonstrated china's international contribution to addressing climate change. he pointed out that the core of south-south cooperation lies in how developing countries can work together to find a new path that is both in line with their own national conditions and can achieve rapid and green development. in this process, establishing a clear strategic vision, setting specific goals, building an effective mechanism and introducing supporting policies are far more important than simple financial assistance.
liu shijin believes that "clear, firm and credible government goals are the most critical to establishing long-term expectations." since the dual carbon goals were proposed, china's green transformation has achieved remarkable results, injecting strong impetus into china's and even the world's green transformation. china has built the world's largest carbon emission trading market, demonstrating huge market potential and innovation capabilities.
he stressed that "green transformation is based on innovation". china has achieved a leap from high carbon to low carbon and zero carbon through new technologies such as photovoltaics, wind energy and hydrogen energy. the cost has dropped significantly, making economic growth and carbon reduction go from conflict to win-win. liu shijin said that these experiences have far-reaching implications for south-south cooperation. developing countries need strong government leadership, set clear emission reduction targets, and create a market environment for green development. at the same time, developing countries should choose a low-carbon green industrialization and modernization development path based on innovation, avoid repeating the mistakes of emission first and governance later, and embark on a unique path of sustainable development.
global climate action: multinational collaboration builds foundation for addressing challenges
according to research estimates, by 2030, the funding needs of developing countries in addressing climate change will soar to hundreds of billions of dollars per year. this huge funding gap urgently needs the joint efforts of public and private capital to fill. given that this year's cop29 will focus on the negotiation of new climate finance targets, cop29 is also known as the "climate finance conference of the parties" (finance cop). the first roundtable forum of this seminar focused on "looking forward to cop29: with the paris agreement approaching ten years later, how can south-south cooperation help global climate action?"
wang yi, deputy director of the national climate change expert committee and former vice president of the institute of strategic consulting of the chinese academy of sciences, said that although global climate governance has made some progress since the signing of the paris agreement, the road to achieving the goal is still long and full of challenges. he stressed that although the bottom-up nationally determined contribution (ndc) model provides flexibility for countries, there is still a huge gap in actual implementation.
wang yi pointed out that cop29 is a key node in the process of the paris agreement, and one of its core topics is the implementation of the new climate collective quantified fund (ncqg). however, the ambiguity of developed countries in their financial commitments and the complexity of the global stocktaking mechanism have made funds a key obstacle to reaching a new consensus. "climate change is a global challenge. although countries have different responsibilities, their common goals are clear. without international cooperation, it is difficult for us to accomplish this arduous mission with the strength of a single country alone."
wang yi called on all countries to go beyond short-term interests and work together for long-term goals, and to lay a solid foundation for the cop30 and the 10th anniversary of the paris agreement through strengthening cooperation and mechanism innovation. in addition, he also specifically mentioned china's commitment in 2021 to "not build new coal-fired power plants overseas" and "help other developing countries develop green and low-carbon energy", which has been fully reflected in china-africa cooperation. wang yi stressed that although developed countries have greater responsibilities in global climate governance, china is actively helping developing countries such as africa to develop renewable energy projects through south-south cooperation and the green "belt and road" initiative. he also pointed out that african countries have a weak energy foundation, and china will focus on supporting these countries to achieve the popularization of clean energy to meet their energy needs and promote energy transformation.
fang li, chief representative of the world resources institute beijing office, analyzed the new trends in global climate governance from the perspective of economic system change. she pointed out that climate change has profoundly affected the global economic system, and the awareness of enterprises and all sectors of society on low-carbon transformation has been continuously improved.
she took the international sustainability standards board (issb) initiated by the international financial reporting standards foundation as an example to illustrate that carbon disclosure has become an important consideration for corporate financing and market competition. in addition, large multinational companies have promoted the low-carbonization of the supply chain through science-based carbon targets (sbti), which not only led to their own emission reductions, but also promoted the formation of a global green industrial chain. fang li also specifically mentioned the "african light belt" project supported by wri - as an important part of the list of practical cooperation projects of the third "belt and road" international cooperation summit forum, it is also an important measure to implement the "china-africa cooperation declaration on climate change" of the forum on china-africa cooperation. the project aims to invest 100 million yuan (about 14 million us dollars) between 2024 and 2027 to solve the problem of electricity lighting for at least 50,000 poor households without electricity in africa, reflecting china's transformation of its investment model in non-renewable energy - on the basis of traditional large-scale centralized projects, it has begun to transform to "small and beautiful" decentralized projects, not only focusing on the "big skeleton", but also paying more attention to the "capillaries".
fang li also pointed out that the various cooperation initiatives in the beijing action plan, including cooperation with ethiopia, the united nations development organization and the world bank, have further broadened the model of china-africa cooperation and provided strong support for africa's modernization. she believes that this is a vivid practice of south-south cooperation in helping african countries achieve energy transformation. she is full of confidence in the future china-africa and global climate cooperation, and believes that through the promotion of similar south-south cooperation models, it can effectively promote the innovation of financial mechanisms and the deepening of cooperation content, and make important contributions to global climate governance.
long di, asia director of crains europe and chief representative of beijing office, called on countries to speed up the formulation and implementation of special laws on climate change from a legal perspective. he pointed out that although the paris agreement has laid a legal framework, its specific implementation still needs the support of domestic laws and policies of various countries. europe's leading position in climate legislation, especially the practice of promoting transformation through litigation, has provided valuable experience for the world.
long di stressed that cop29 should be used as an opportunity to urge countries to accelerate legislation and use legal means to ensure the achievement of climate goals. in this context, long di specifically mentioned the deep potential and broad prospects of china-eu cooperation in green industries. despite trade differences, the cooperation between the two sides in the fields of green and climate change remains solid and has a long history. the rapid development of china's green industry has contributed efficient and economical green solutions to the world. these technologies and products should be the first choice of the international market, benefiting europe and even africa.
long di suggested that china-eu cooperation should go beyond simple product transactions and deepen into the field of joint production. through joint production, countries can share technological achievements, avoid market monopoly risks, and work together to promote global climate transformation. he shared the successful cooperation case between china and europe in indonesia, emphasizing the key role of high-level dialogue and policy matching in the successful implementation of green projects. long di called on european and american countries to seize the opportunity to explore win-win cooperation with china in the green field, jointly accelerate the process of global climate transformation, and inject stronger impetus into the response to climate change.
local climate adaptation: bottom-up mobilization strategies to strengthen social forces are urgently needed
at the second roundtable forum of the seminar, representatives from frontline ngos shared their practices and insights in their respective fields around the theme of "how to simultaneously promote mitigation and adaptation actions under the 'new normal' of climate change."
yuan jin, chairman of the shanxi kecheng energy and environmental innovation research institute, gave a detailed introduction to shanxi's exploration and challenges in the process of energy transformation. he pointed out that as a resource-based economic province that has attracted much attention, shanxi has experienced the transformation pains of "prospering from coal" and "trapped by coal". in recent years, shanxi has achieved preliminary optimization of its energy structure by increasing the proportion of advanced production capacity, developing new energy and renewable energy, and promoting the development of clean energy industries such as hydrogen energy. however, the high volatility of the coal economy has put tremendous pressure on transformation.
yuan jin stressed that local-led actions to address climate change require the government to set clear goals, provide adequate funding, conduct forward-looking research, and strengthen cross-regional cooperation and exchanges. taking shanxi as an example, the national level should issue a coal withdrawal roadmap as soon as possible to provide certainty for local transformation, and set up special transformation funds to support economic transformation and ecological restoration in major coal-producing areas.
liu jinmei, climate strategy director of friends of nature, discussed the importance of climate adaptation from the perspective of public advocacy. she introduced the linglong plan initiated by friends of nature, which promotes local climate adaptation actions by mobilizing individuals with professional capabilities to play a role in their respective fields.
liu jinmei shared three cases, including landscape designers transforming community spaces to improve residents' ability to adapt to high temperature heat waves, and urban village residents spontaneously organizing to transform infrastructure to cope with the threat of heavy rain. she pointed out that although china has made significant progress in emission reduction, as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, improving climate resilience is also critical. she called on local governments to increase investment in climate adaptation while focusing on emission reduction, regularly update risk assessments, and set up flexible funds to support local climate adaptation projects.
ma jun, director of the institute of public and environmental affairs (ipe), elaborated on new ways to promote climate governance from the perspective of big data applications. he mentioned that china's achievements in air pollution control have provided valuable experience for developing countries around the world. through large-scale monitoring and release of environmental data, china has effectively improved government supervision and public participation, and promoted corporate emission reduction.
ma jun believes that in the field of climate governance, it is also necessary to establish a sound data infrastructure and form an effective constraint incentive mechanism by monitoring and disclosing corporate carbon emission information. he introduced the work of compiling corporate carbon emission information disclosure guidelines that china is promoting, as well as the application of digital carbon accounting solutions. these initiatives will contribute chinese wisdom to global climate governance. ma jun emphasized that clear goal setting, effective evaluation system, scientific and technological investment and social mobilization are key elements in promoting local climate action.
in response to the common question of "what support is needed to promote local-led climate action", the three guests agreed that clear goals and policy guidance are the prerequisite, sufficient financial support is the foundation, scientific and technological investment and innovation capabilities are the driving force, and extensive social mobilization is the key. only through the joint efforts of the government, enterprises, the public and the international community can we effectively respond to the challenges of climate change and achieve the goal of sustainable development.
strengthening global cooperation to meet climate challenges: china and global partners move forward together
in the special commentary session, two guests, wang yi, deputy director of the national climate change expert committee, and fang li, chief representative of the world resources institute beijing office, analyzed the new trends and challenges in current climate change governance around topics such as the china-africa cooperation forum, the outcomes of the china-us talks, and the circular economy forum, and put forward insights on china's role in global climate governance and future cooperation paths.
fang li first mentioned that the current climate change issue has expanded from simple negotiations to broader dialogue and cooperation, involving multiple complex areas such as energy transformation and biodiversity protection. wang yi said that with the development of science, people's understanding of climate change has continued to deepen, and responding to climate change must be based on common rules, such as the united nations framework convention on climate change and the paris agreement.
he pointed out that climate change is a complex issue involving a wide range of areas and requires systematic changes, including the construction of a new power system and energy system to achieve the widespread use of renewable energy. when talking about china's role in global climate governance, wang yi emphasized that "we need to pay attention to each other's concerns." china is constantly deepening south-south cooperation and seeking consensus and cooperation in complex relations with the united states, europe and other countries. faced with multiple challenges such as supply chain and geopolitics, countries should strengthen communication and exchanges with the goal of win-win results, especially in the development of new energy industries and the construction of supply chains. international cooperation and innovation are needed to find a suitable development path through learning and experimentation in practice.
wang yi also pointed out that in order to strengthen international cooperation under the background of carbon neutrality, flexible market mechanisms and innovative cooperation models are needed. he suggested that cooperation between different countries and enterprises can be promoted through joint compliance and carbon emissions trading, especially under the framework of south-south cooperation, where there is great room for cooperation between china and africa.
the two guests agreed that in the face of the severe challenges of global climate change, countries must eliminate obstacles to cooperation and jointly promote systemic changes to achieve carbon neutrality goals and global sustainable development. china will continue to contribute wisdom and strength to global climate governance as a participant, contributor and leader. as wang yi said, "whether it is a political or economic issue, we can achieve a win-win result through cooperation, not a zero-sum game."
at the end of the seminar, gabrielle swaby, diplomacy and partnership manager of the 2025 climate transition alliance (act2025), gave a summary speech. gabrielle pointed out that many points in the meeting were worth pondering, especially the discussion on funding, loss and damage, and innovative mechanisms.
she particularly emphasized china's important role in global climate action, believing that china can promote connections and exchanges between countries and jointly address vulnerability challenges. when talking about innovative paths and climate financing, gabrielle believed that this is the key to achieving climate goals. she mentioned that the concept of green travel should be accepted by the whole society, which will help promote the progress of low-carbon industries. at the same time, she highly praised china's experience in energy transformation and local government participation.
however, gabrielle also pointed out the challenges currently faced. she stressed that fair and just transformation is an important part of achieving climate goals, and countries still have a lot of room to solve this problem. although we have made significant progress since the paris agreement, we still need to continue working hard. at the same time, gabrielle affirmed china's leadership in global energy action and encouraged china to continue to strengthen unity and play a leading role. she looks forward to continuing in-depth discussions with experts and guests to jointly promote the development of climate transformation.
li yiran fu guojie
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