Chinese official expresses 'determination' on climate

By Amy He at the United Nations | China Daily USA | Updated: 2014-09-24 12:37

China is "determined to honor" its commitment to address climate change despite difficulties, said Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the body that regulates China's economic development.

"The Chinese government is a responsible government and we are determined to honor our commitment in spite of the fact that we need to overcome a huge amount of difficulty," said Xie of the National Development and Reform Commission at a press briefing at the United Nations on Tuesday, the day that the UN held its Climate Change Summit.

"Besides that, I would like to add that the measures taken by the Chinese government to address climate change are not forced on China by the outside world, as President Xi Jinping has put it. We are doing it for our own sake, and we will disconnect China's economic development [with] the increase of carbon emissions, and this is for the purpose for China to achieve sustainable development," said Xie.

Asked when China will reach the peak of its carbon emissions, Xie said that the country has been conducting research and hopes the findings can be announced in the first quarter of 2015. Xie said that so far carbon intensity in China has been cut by 28.56 percent for a reduction of 2.5 billion tons.

"The decrease has been achieved by the following means: firstly, through energy saving and energy efficiency increase. From the years 2006 to 2013, energy intensity has been reduced by 26.7 percent," he said. "The second means is to reshuffle China's energy composition. By 2013, non-fossil fuels' share in the energy composition has been increased to 9.8 percent, which is close to 10 percent."

He said China also has increased the number of forests to reduce carbon emission. "I think it's fair to say that great efforts have been taken by China. According to the World Bank's report, from 1990 to 2010, the accumulative energy saved by China accounts for 58 percent of the world's total," he added.

Commenting on what he sees as the difference between the roles of developed and developing countries in tackling climate change, Xie said that varies depending on countries' stages of development.

The principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" must be followed, he said, which is a framework adopted by the United Nations that says the responsibilities of different nations to address climate change depends on a country's economic capability and technical capacity to do so.

"Every country should play its due role according to its capacity and individual stage of development. This is based on this consensus that the world has been working on addressing climate change," Xie said.

China as a developing country has experienced the negative effects of climate change acutely, he said, with 18 million people living in poverty and vulnerable to weather extremes. In the last decade, China has experienced close to 200 billion yuan ($32.6 billion) in losses every year due to temperature severity.

"I think it is also true for other developing countries like African countries, small island countries, and least developed countries," he said. "That is why we're on the same page as those countries when it comes to adaptation and that's why we have been providing aid to those countries."

Asked about why Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the climate change summit this year, Xie said that he had other domestic engagements, but entrusted Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli to brief the summit on China's climate achievements thus far.

"We have been working very hard and trying to play our constructive role in the multilateral regime in addressing climate change," Xie said, "and we hope that we can make the effort of the world addressing climate change a success."

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com