China and US push forward climate actions

Beijing: China and the United States will make joint efforts to ensure a successful United Nations climate change conference in November, a key task of which will be to set a new financial target for supporting developing countries in their climate actions.

The announcement came after a three-day meeting of the China-US Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, which was hosted by China in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday. The meeting was co-chaired by Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change, and John Podesta, senior adviser to the US president for international climate policy.

The two sides continued their discussions on tackling the climate crisis, including the implementation of the 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions and preparation of their 2035 NDCs, according to a media release on Sunday from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Nationally determined contributions are part of a climate action plan under the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Each party to the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep the global temperature increase this century to well below 2 C above pre-industrial levels, and limiting it to 1.5 C, is required to establish an NDC and update it every five years.

The ministry’s release said the two sides welcomed the technical and policy exchanges that have been conducted under the working group, including discussions on energy transition, methane, circular economy and resource efficiency, as well as low-carbon and sustainable provinces, states and cities.

While reaffirming their intention to jointly host a summit on methane and other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases at the UN COP29 climate change conference, the two sides also discussed encouraging participation from other parties, according to the release.

COP29, formally known as the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is scheduled to be held from Nov 11 to 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Recalling their commitments to advancing efforts to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, China and the US expressed their intention to continue discussion and cooperation in this regard, the ministry release said. Furthermore, the two countries will continue to enforce laws on banning illegal imports and promote global forest conservation and sustainable management.

The two countries also are committed to further strengthening dialogue and collaborative efforts, together with other parties, to support Azerbaijan for successful outcomes at COP29, including reaching the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance and making progress on setting rules for Article 6 of the accord, which allows countries to cooperate with each other to achieve emission reduction targets.

The New Collective Quantified Goal, a key element of the Paris treaty, is designed to set a new financial target to support developing countries in their post-2025 climate actions. Regarding Article 6, parties to the treaty have so far failed to agree on detailed rules after years of negotiation.

China and the US reached a consensus to establish the working group during COP26, in Glasgow, United Kingdom, in 2021, vowing to meet regularly to address the climate crisis and advance the multilateral process.

The two sides held the first meeting of the working group in Washington on May 8 and 9.