EU-China Cooperation on Climate Change - Foundation Office China
In his welcoming speech, Wei Jianguo, Vice Chairman of CCIEE, outlined the global importance and potential of EU-China cooperation in addressing climate change, and presented several initiatives to enhance cooperation between both sides, such as strengthening cooperation in third-party markets such as Africa. However, he also called for the avoidance of negative effects of climate change measures on inter-market trade. Denis Schrey, Head of the Multinational Development Policy Dialogue of KAS Brussels, explained in his welcome address the EU's climate targets for 2030 and 2050, stating that the EU's climate policy is an inclusive policy and should be adapted to the needs and interests of the EU's global partners. At the same time, the EU's climate policy should be more action-oriented. He mentioned "carbon-pricing" and "green finance" as two important issues in the field of climate change policy and said that despite the pressure on EU-China relations due to various issues, there was still much room for developing cooperation on climate change.
In the first panel, speakers from the EU and China discussed the strategies and prospects for climate/carbon neutrality of the EU and China up to 2050 and 2060 respectively. The panel was moderated by Christoph Nedopil Wang, Founding Director of the Green Belt and Road Initiative Center and Senior Research Fellow of the International Institute of Green Finance at the Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing. He gave a brief overview of the respective plans of the EU and China to tackle climate change and stressed the importance of enhanced cooperation between the EU and China. Philip Owen, Head of Climate Finance at Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) of the European Commission, followed up with an emphasis on the importance but also challenges of implementing plans into action.
Li Junfeng, Director of the Academic Committee of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), underlined the importance of energy research to advance action to deal with climate change. He noted that China would face major challenges in meeting its self-imposed targets of maximum carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. He also expressed his hope to deepen cooperation with the EU and learn from its valuable experience in the field of tackling climate change.
Georg Zachmann, Senior Fellow on Energy and Climate Policy at Bruegel, and Kang Yanbing, Director of the Energy Sustainability Center and Energy Research Institute at NDRC, both described possible areas of cooperation for EU-China collaboration on climate change. For example, they mentioned "zero carbon emission demonstration zones", EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform and decarbonisation technologies.
During the second panel, EU and Chinese experts discussed the potential for EU-China cooperation on climate change policy regarding green finance/climate finance and carbon pricing. Vicky Pollard, Deputy Head of the International Carbon Markets Unit of DG CLIMA of the European Commission, introduced the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). She mentioned that the EU and China are working together to make the ETS work for China, which would lead to more opportunities for cooperation. Dr. Christian Hübner, Head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung's Regional Project on Energy Security and Climate Change Asia-Pacific (RECAP), said that now was the crucial time for the EU and China to work together in the fight against climate change, and identified several key issues for cooperation such as integration of third-party countries, the EU's carbon border adjustment policy, energy transition and digitalization.
Li Liping, Division Director of the Institute for International Environmental Policy of the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy of the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and Yin Hong, Deputy Secretary General of the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, saw e.g. the creation of zero-carbon cities, the development of green financing and the strengthening of technical cooperation in reducing carbon emissions as promising fields of cooperation between the EU and China.
In the following discussions, both sides agreed that climate change can only be tackled together and that a constant exchange between the EU and China, as two of the most important actors in this process, is of great importance. In this sense, the webinar provided a good opportunity for discussion and a platform to better understand the views and interests of the other side.
