" "H Paris Agreement " reflects that China is no longer a follower, but an active participant and leader in its work on climate change response." Liang Xi, Secretary-General of the CCUS Center and Standing Committee Member of the Climate Investment and Financing Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing News Shell Finance. The Twenty National Congress of the Communist Party of my country issued a voice of "actively participating in global governance of climate change response". In the past ten years, what "climate diplomacy" have been carried out to deal with climate change? What role does Chinese companies play in global climate change response?
Liang Xi believes that China has made remarkable achievements in the field of ecological civilization construction in the past decade, especially with the proposal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, more and more enterprises and local governments have actively responded to this work.
Liang Xi, Secretary-General of Guangdong South CCUS Center and Standing Committee Member of the Climate Investment and Financing Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences Photo/Photo provided by the interviewee
China has made a lot of efforts and coordination in promoting the implementation of the rules to reach a global consensus
Beijing News Shell Finance: Climate change is a challenge faced by all countries. What work does my country carry out to cope with international cooperation in climate change?
Liang Xi: Under the current complex and changing international situation, climate change should be a very important part of our current diplomatic work and an important link for a community with a shared future for mankind. Now we are continuing to jointly carry out some dialogues and negotiations on climate change response with developed countries and developing countries, including exploring how to promote developed countries to provide more support to developing countries in terms of funds to deal with climate change.
At the same time, in climate investment and financing, China has also carried out cooperation and dialogue with France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries; in terms of technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology has taken the lead in establishing a low-carbon technology transfer center related to " South-South Cooperation ". In terms of external support and assistance to underdeveloped countries, China also has a very complete cooperation plan to assist underdeveloped countries in carrying out capacity building to respond to climate change. On the industrial side, we also have a lot of cooperation, and my country's new energy-related manufacturing industries, electric vehicles, etc. play an important role in the world market.
Beijing News Shell Finance: What climate diplomatic activities have impressed you in the past ten years?
Liang Xi: In the process of promoting the conclusion of the Paris Agreement, China and the United States held talks in Hangzhou, which is of great significance. The Paris Agreement is the third milestone international legal text in human history to deal with climate change after the " United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" and the " Kyoto Protocol ". General Secretary Xi Jinping mentioned at the general debate on at the 75th UN General Assembly that China will increase the efforts of national voluntary contributions to and adopt more powerful policies and measures. carbon dioxide emissions will strive to peak by 2030 and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. This work is the most important commitment for mankind to deal with climate change in the next decade, even twenty or thirty years.
According to the total amount, my country is now the world's largest carbon emitter. Without China's commitment, it would be difficult for humans to deal with climate change. So when China put forward the "dual carbon" goal, this is a very exciting commitment to the global development of new climate change work and also reflects China's responsible responsibility as a major country. After China proposed a dual-carbon target, Japan, South Korea and others followed suit and announced their respective goals of achieving carbon neutrality. During the 26th United Nations Climate Conference held in Glasgow, UK, climate negotiations at the Conference of the Parties were difficult. The Paris Agreement was just an institutional framework, and the Climate Conference was negotiating around specific implementation rules.
In the process of promoting the implementation rules to reach a global consensus, China has made a lot of efforts and coordination to achieve a multi-party consensus on the implementation rules of the Paris Agreement. This also reflects that China is no longer a follower, but an active participant and leader in its work on climate change.
Enterprises need strategic determination to carry out "dual carbon" work
Beijing News Shell Finance: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, what progress and results have been made in my country implemented actively green and low-carbon transformation and development?
Liang Xi: On the one hand, the industry has achieved good development. China's new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, , wind power, energy storage and other industries have already led or even dominated the world. There are also some new industries, such as carbon capture, utilization and storage, which are also developing very quickly. Climate change-related industries have also achieved remarkable results. Not only is my country's dual carbon work helpful, but it also provides great support for the world to achieve carbon emission reduction at a lower cost.
In terms of policy environment, China has made a lot of efforts. Since 2013, eight provinces and cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei, Shenzhen and Fujian have successively launched the carbon emission rights trading local pilot projects. After summarizing the experience of local pilot projects in these carbon markets, the national carbon market of the power industry was finally launched last year, which also provides a good policy environment for achieving carbon emission reduction in the future. The carbon market will also have some soft infrastructure related to carbon accounting, carbon verification and other related ones. In addition to the carbon market, the country also launched climate investment and financing two years ago, which has a very good effect on attracting more funds to flow to the field of climate change in the future and improving the efficiency of capital use. This work is also a task of independent innovation in our country.
countries are actively promoting talent training. In addition to the Ministry of Education encouraging universities to carry out discipline construction related to carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the Ministry of Science and Technology also encourages universities to conduct dual-carbon research and formulate a comprehensive technical roadmap. Ministry of Ecology and Environment is also working with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to accelerate new career training plans, carbon technology engineering personnel and carbon emission management. All of these work provide a very positive basis for the steady implementation of dual carbon work in the future.
Beijing News Beike Finance: What kind of talents do you think "dual carbon" needs? How should universities make efforts in the cultivation of relevant talents?
Liang Xi: 's "dual carbon" goal involves a wide range of areas, and the transformation of almost all industries such as energy, industry, agriculture, transportation, and construction involves the transformation, so the dual carbon field requires compound talents. Many basic applied disciplines need to be offered majors related to "dual carbon" and the demand for disciplines related to dual carbon will become stronger and stronger in the later stage.
In the past two years, after my country proposed the "dual carbon" goal, there has been a huge gap in talent in the entire dual carbon field. At present, universities such as Tsinghua University , Ping University , Shanghai Jiaotong University have begun to set up related disciplines. Some domestic universities have taken the lead in trials very early. Shanghai Jiaotong University established the Chinese-English low-carbon college with the University of Edinburgh, England and carried out discipline education and vocational education ; Peking University Guanghua School of Management opened the elective course of carbon finance five years ago, and was renamed Climate Investment and Financing in the past two years.
We should pay attention to strengthening talent training to meet the needs of society and enterprises. For students, having the right job and needs can stimulate their enthusiasm for learning. Jobs involving dual carbon are now growing faster than other fields, which will help undergraduates in career choices. However, most undergraduates study basic subjects, such as environmental engineering, environmental science, chemical engineering and other disciplines. They can transfer to dual-carbon-related majors in the later stage. Perhaps in the future, in the future, elective courses related to "dual-carbon" can be offered in senior year, so that students can get access to relevant knowledge in advance.
Beijing News Beike Finance: enterprises are the main force in responding to climate change. In the past ten years, what changes have my country's enterprises' attitudes towards participating in responding to climate change?
Liang Xi: In 2020, the proposal of the goals of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" is a very important turning point. Many leading enterprises have tried carbon emission reduction before. Now, more central and state-owned enterprises have responded actively and carried out a number of actions.
At the same time, there are also some private enterprises, such as Tencent Group , proposed at the beginning of 2021 that it will achieve full carbon neutrality in its own operations and supply chain no later than 2030; and invest huge amounts of money to carry out the "dual carbon" work. There are also many foreign-funded enterprises that are already exploring and practicing the "zero carbon factory" in the process of investing in China. These all show that companies have begun to take action, but a real consensus on a large scale may need to wait for future carbon market pricing to rise.
Climate change work has policy coordination, but if the business community can form an industrial chain that is highly interdependent among countries, it will be of great help to global climate governance and even global economic and political stability. At the same time, enterprises also need to have long-term strategic determination in carrying out this work. I think in the future, Chinese companies will play a more important incentive role in participating in international climate governance.
Adaptation to climate change is a long-term and arduous task
Beijing News Shell Finance: In 2016, my country began to launch the construction of climate adaptation pilot cities. In August this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a document that by 2030, we will strive to basically form a technical system and standard system for adapting to climate change. How do you evaluate the achievements of climate adaptation pilot cities?
Liang Xi: The construction of climate adaptation pilot cities has already achieved phased results. I have visited the Xixian New District, Shaanxi, one of the pilots. They have developed some new technologies and new materials to support adaptation to climate change in sponge city , and have developed some new technologies and new materials to support adaptation to climate change, such as new permeable bricks and rain-sea separating solenoid valves. However, with frequent extreme climate change, peaks are difficult to predict. Adapting to climate change risks is a long-term task, with uncertainties and challenges that need to be continuously solved in the pilot process later.
Beijing News Beike Finance: Specifically, what are the weak links?
Liang Xi: First of all, in recent years, extreme climate change has occurred frequently, such as extreme rainfall and extreme drought in some cities, which are difficult to predict. Urban and regional infrastructure and resilience capabilities still need to be improved to adapt to possible climate changes. If the government can strengthen infrastructure's ability to adapt to climate change in advance from the perspective of preventing risks, it will also be conducive to urban competitiveness and may be conducive to investment promotion.
Secondly, adapting to climate change, the greater reward is the return of social value and reducing the damage caused by extreme climate phenomena. So when we carry out this work, we need a lot of financial investment. How to ensure funds for adapting to climate change, while ensuring sufficient fiscal investment will be an important challenge in the future.
Third, in the process of adapting to climate change, our marketization is not high enough, and there is currently no evaluation system.
Finally, there is a lack of some market-oriented mechanisms, such as how insurance is included in the work of adapting to climate change? If insurance companies are to reduce compensation, they may also use some funds to help local communities mitigate disasters caused by extreme climate change. With the intervention of bumper leverage, this work may be of great help in the future.
Beijing News Shell Finance: You have said that the Western green finance system has a "greenwashing" problem. What does it specifically refer to and what is the reference effect of my country's green financial system?
Liang Xi: The development of Western green finance is from the bottom up, initiated by some industry associations and formulated industry standards, mainly to establish the green brand image of financial institutions, such as certification of green bond , green fund , etc. These are only statistical labeling work and are not really promoting substantial emission reduction. But investors will not think so much. They believe that buying green bonds and green funds is like "indulgences". They believe that it has promoted a large amount of carbon emission reduction. In fact, investors' returns are not much different from those green bonds and non-green bonds. They are helpful to promote green projects but will not be particularly significant.
Therefore, in the future work of green finance, we must consider how to promote it to generate more substantial additional emission reductions and additional green benefits, rather than just conducting statistics and labeling of existing activities, while ensuring that green finance products provide very accurate information disclosure to investors.
Questions and Answers for the same question
In the next decade, where will we make efforts to promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality?
Liang Xi: First of all, we must take "carbon emission reduction" as an important consensus, resolutely maintain strategic determination, and make a forward-looking layout. We cannot continue to shake due to the short-term situation, resulting in many unnecessary losses, but we also need to follow the principle of "establish first and then break" and carry out this work steadily.
Secondly, we must actively participate in the formulation of international rules and increase the number of times we participate in international activities. At present, many international rules and standards are formulated by Western countries. How to establish a carbon emission reduction system that is beneficial to China and some underdeveloped countries requires us to actively participate.
Furthermore, we must continue to strengthen the development of the industry. If we have a very strong industrial foundation in low-carbon-related manufacturing services and investment and financing activities, it will be more conducive to our work internationally. In the process of infrastructure construction and transformation, Africa, Latin America and other places can use more products made in China to provide services.
, and we need to strengthen basic research. New technologies and new materials must be followed up continuously to avoid falling behind in the process of technological iteration.
Finally, in the construction of mechanisms, such as carbon market, climate investment and financing, and South-South cooperation, we should take the initiative to study response measures and occupy a more favorable position.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Zhao Fangyuan
Editor Qu Xiaoyi Song Yuting
Proofreading Chen Diyan
