China’s leaders know that an effective treaty on climate change in 2015 is essential to the country’s development, says IPCC China expert Wang Chunfeng.

China is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and so the world will pay close attention to its stance at next year’s climate negotiations in Paris, as well as to the kinds of actions it takes to tackle climate change post-2020.

Despite the fact that China has published a report setting out its policies and actions for addressing climate change every year since 2008, the international community still appears to harbour doubts about its resolve to seek an international deal. But actively tackling climate change is fundamental to sustainable development in China, and this will drive its leaders to push even harder for a new deal next year.  

It isn’t hard to see that China’s motivation is genuine.

First, China is suffering badly from the adverse effects of climate change. Over the last hundred years, the annual average rise in temperatures in China has been higher than the global average. Climate change causes uneven distribution of rainfall and water resources, both temporally and spatially, and intensifies damage from extreme weather events.

Since the 1990s, China has suffered annual average economic losses of over 200 billion yuan (US$32 billion) as a direct result of extreme weather events, and an annual average death toll above 2,000. Climate change continues to impact living conditions – and the ability to achieve sustainable development – in many regions.

The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that rising temperatures will grow more pronounced, adverse impacts will intensify and damage from extreme weather events in China will get even more serious. To pursue benefits and minimise harm, China must mitigate the adverse effects of climate change if it wants to achieve sustainable development.

Second, there is no contradiction between the direction of China’s economic development and tackling climate change.

China’s most obvious achievement over the past 30 years has been its rapid economic rise, but the majority of its industries are located at the bottom of the supply chain. Home-grown innovation has been weak and key technologies lacking, while China has struggled with an excess of low-end production capacity.

Now, however, China has started to establish innovation-based development. It is adjusting its economic structure, and no longer pursuing development at the cost of the environment. This new development path means that China has to lower its total energy consumption and change its energy framework to support further adjustments to its economic structure.

For the complete article, please see china dialogue.