No breakthroughs, but China stays the course on climate goals

Beijing signaled it would be willing to help compensate developing countries for losses and damage caused by climate change, China’s climate envoy, Xiè Zhènhuá 解振华, said on Wednesday, amid a gathering of about 200 countries at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

“We strongly support the claims from developing countries, especially the most vulnerable countries, for claiming loss and damage compensation because China is also a developing country and we also suffered a lot from extreme weather events,” Xie said per Reuters. “It is not the obligation of China, but we are willing to make our contribution and make our effort.”

• He earlier called for more aid to developing nations.

Xie also met with his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, for unofficial talks during the conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, breaking months of silence between the two countries after China froze communications in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August.

• Xie told Bloomberg that he and Kerry exchanged eight emails since talks were suspended, as they have been keeping private contact following a friendship of 25 years. He added that China’s “door is always open” for a joint effort to promote COP27 agenda items.
• “We need to be talking to each other because we’re the two biggest economies in the world and the two biggest emitters,” Kerry told the Wall Street Journal. “We’ve had some informal talks, but we’re not in any formal negotiations at this point in time…I certainly stand ready to negotiate,” Kerry said per Bloomberg on Twitter.

China has sent a delegation of over 50 strong led by Zhào Yīngmín 赵英民, vice minister of China’s Ecology and Environment, to the global summit, but is unlikely to change its “double carbon” pledge of reaching peak carbon emissions before 2030 and becoming carbon neutral before 2060. Instead, Beijing has pushed for a focus on implementing current climate goals.

However, even without any new pledges, China is already a global leader in several green industries like electric vehicle sales and renewable energy installations, which are booming under a slew of new government policies.

• Millions of electric vehicle owners in China might soon shift to battery-swapping techniques to power their cars, as domestic EV makers race to capitalize on official support from Beijing.
• The government is promoting a range of green technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, new energy vehicles, green building construction, and energy-saving products. Solar energy is expected to become the largest primary energy source by around 2045.
• China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) revealed a plan for the development of “new energy” in June, confirming that the proportion of renewables in China’s primary energy consumption will reach 25% by 2030.
• “China is a country that walks the walk,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān 赵立坚 said at a press conference today, in reference to the nation’s climate response.

But China’s continued dependence on coal and Beijing’s galvanized efforts to prop up its struggling economy have raised concerns that the nation’s climate pledges will take a back seat.

• China stated earlier this year that its overarching guideline is to transform energy “in an orderly manner,” after a severe power crunch last year drew Beijing to prioritize stabilizing the nation’s energy resources — including coal power.
• The country generates roughly a third of the world’s carbon dioxide, much of it from coal power and industrial steel and cement manufacturing. Chinese power and steel firms continue to invest in coal-based production capacity at alarming rates, a Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air report (English, Chinese) found in February.