Chinese President Xi and US President Obama announced a joint statement on climate change on Wednesday in Beijing. China for the first time pledged to peak its emissions around 2030 and US plans to reduce its carbon emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 level in 2025. China also pledged to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its energy mix to around 20 percent by 2030. While the goal could be further improved, this announcement is expected to "inject momentum into the global climate negotiations" leading up to Paris in 2015. Below is a reactive statement from Greenovation Hub.
"The China-US joint announcement is a positive step of the global efforts in combating climate change. As China’s energy transition away from coal is gaining momentum, with the existing national and regional policy interventions, the national coal peaking by 2020 is a must first step in peaking the emissions. It aligns with China's domestic critical agenda on cleaning up the sky as well as its climate responsibilities. Building on this foreseable step in the coming 13th Five Year Plan , the emission peak can then be reached before 2030 through accelerated policies.
Although the targets from China and the US were released in the same document - the joint statement, we believe individual equity and ambition review, looking into the past, present and future perspectives in a comprehensive manner, is needed.
For a robust global climate deal to be reached by Paris, China should have more proactive all-around engagements along the way with other developing countries and developed countries."
Media Contact:
hongyu@ghub.org
+86 10 8447 7697
