UNDP: China is joining the world leadership to combat climate change

Chinagate.cn:

How can we improve international cooperation on climate change? How can we enable the transfer of technology to developing countries?

Martínez-Solimán:

I think that international cooperation on climate change is really at its best right now. There is, first, a very clear forum. International climate talks happen all throughout the year and end up in the major conference, the conference of the parties, around a number of legally binding agreements. Second, we also have a disaster risk reduction forum which resulted in the Kyoto Protocol.

We not only have major climate talks, but we have the ones that look at disaster risk reduction, and the framework to protect the world against dangerous climate change. Third, we have the support of all that, which is the big discussion on the development and on finance for development, which happened in the summit in New York around the Sustainable Development Goals, Agenda 2030, and the Addis Ababa Action Plan on how to finance Agenda 2030. So, there is no shortage of international cooperation. There is the very strong decision made by China to support south-south cooperation on climate and the climate finance for south-south cooperation, again a proof of international decisions and cooperation in this matter.

You know, unresolved problems tend to be unresolved because they are difficult to resolve. It’s almost a tautology, but it’s true. The reason why technology is not transferred is because you need to invest a lot to produce technology. So, once you have invested a lot in creating a solution to a given problem, the company that has invested wants to recover as much profit as possible from that investment. That’s just normal. We need to understand that to be able to approach and resolve the problem. Now, the first thing we are saying is that technology that is owned by rich or richer countries, needs to be put at the disposal as quickly as possible, and as cheaply as possible to very poor countries. Very poor countries will never have the possibility of investing, will never have the possibility of developing this technology, and will never have the possibility of buying that technology. So, there is no point in waiting to sell, because there is no market. So, in the countries that have such a low purchasing power that there is no market, I think it makes sense for the owner of these technologies to do joint ventures, so that the technologies are put at their disposal.

Second, there are intermediates. There are countries that are in the middling common range and that actually have a market but perhaps cannot pay the full market price. I think we also need to look at intermediate possibilities to facilitate the transfer of technology. That’s usually done through joint ventures between private capital who own the technology, of the country that owns the technology, and private capital of the country that can make that agreement.

Government subsidies can have a role, because they can compensate the private sector for the transfer of the technology, so that the loss of profit that would normally happen if the technology was sold is compensated by a public subsidy.

I could give you examples with medicine. The development of pharmaceutical products is a very clear example. When you see the tension between those who want to make maximum profit, and some others who say life-saving medicines are a global public good, you actually have to put that knowledge at the disposal of the people who suffer and cannot afford it. So, technology transfer is one of the big pending items, one of the very difficult issues that has not been resolved, and where we need to work harder to generate opportunities for that.

Chinagate.cn:

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September that China would further cut its greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to lower its carbon density 40 to 45 percent by 2020. What is your assessment of China’s efforts to address climate change and the measures that the Chinese government has adopted to cut emissions?

Martínez-Solimán:

The three major efforts in the world to combat dangerous climate change are being made by the Europeans, by President Obama, and by President Xi. These are the three very large political initiatives and economic transformational initiatives. And China has joined the top leadership in the transformation of the economy in favor of a green economy, and of what is called the ecological civilization in China. I have been participating the last three days hearing the meeting of the environmental council that advises the Chinese government on climate change policies. And the discussions around the 13th five-year period plan were very serious.

Everybody in the world takes President Xi’s announcement extremely seriously. First because we have seen in the past how announcements of this type have actually been followed by action. So there is credibility. And second, because it is important for China, it will result in changes in China, and therefore, it is absolutely fundamental for the world. So, we have assessed the commitments of the Chinese leadership as an extraordinary positive development in the direction of climate action.

Chinagate.cn:

During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s US visit in September, China announced that the country will set up a 20-billion-yuan (about $3.1 billion) South-South Cooperation Fund to help developing countries address climate change. What do you think of China’s initiative? What is the impact the initiative will have on achievement of the sustainable development goals after 2015?

Martínez-Solimán:

We need to see how that will be articulated and what the architecture for the delivery of climate finances will be. We welcome the announcement. It’s extremely important. We would have liked that funding to go to the Green Climate Fund. That would have been a good idea, but of course China will decide the best way in which it wishes to deliver south-south cooperation to all the southern partners. You see, in the end, rich economies have the resources to do what they need to do. It is the poor economies of the south that do not have the means to fight against dangerous climate change. So, that’s why the Green Climate Fund and other financial architectures are being set up.

We are looking forward to knowing more about how this announcement will materialize, and how eventually, the United Nations and UNDP in particular can contribute. Let’s not forget that we are the main multilateral provider of climate aid. We deliver climate finance to 144 countries in the world, and we are a very strong advocator of south-south cooperation. So, we would certainly welcome it if there is a possibility of being associated with assisting China in the delivery of that south-south cooperation.

Chinagate.cn：

How can we further boost the low carbon economy, for both the Chinese government and Chinese companies?

Martínez-Solimán:

There’s many ways in which the Chinese government can and actually is trying to transform the Chinese economy to a low carbon economy. Obviously, reducing the weight of coal in the economy, in energy mix is one. I don’t know any city in the world that has only electric motorbikes. No city in the world has done that kind of progress. That’s very clear progress towards the result.

But my point is that we need to do systems thinking. What is systems thinking? If you say, well, we have now all electric motorbikes, but those electric motorbikes are filled with electricity that is produced by coal plants, and not by hydro. Somehow the solution that you have put forward is not full because you haven’t thought about the systems about the chain that ends up feeding that solution. So that’s why, we were saying it symptoms and elements are good, but they need to be part of the system that is transformational in the economy.

To give you a straight answer, I think the Chinese government has two responsibilities. It has the responsibility as the government of the one of the biggest countries in the world, and it has the responsibility as a global player of the international community. As a global player, it can help arrive at an agreement in Paris, and be a good international cooperative citizen, which it is. It has increasingly being seen as contributing to international solutions. As a national government, it can absolutely drive its private sector, its development, the development of new cities and the development of new industries towards more sustainable development parts. I think it is doing that precisely. Maybe the results are not visible yet. Some of the results are not visible because of the speed of the development that China is witnessing. I just think that the obligation of the UN is to ask governments to do more. So I would say China can do more.

 

Huang Jiexin also contributed to this report.