Long-term, ambitious climate goals boost green finance: China's top climate envoy

PARIS, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's practice in recent years shows that establishing long-term, effective and ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can attract more capital and technology from all sectors to engage in developing a green economy, Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change, said here on Tuesday.

Xie made the remarks while addressing a forum on leveraging public funds to combat climate change, part of activities at the One Planet Summit co-organized by France, the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank.

He reminded the attendees that China unveiled such ambitious goals to cut emissions in 2009 and 2015, respectively, in its intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), an action plan submitted to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In the 2015 plan, China aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 60 percent to 65 percent from the 2005 level by 2030.

To reach the INDCs, it will require a total investment of 41 trillion yuan (6.2 trillion U.S. dollars) based on 2010 prices, and create 69 million jobs, which signals a clear direction for the flows of capital and technology from all sectors, according to Xie.

The envoy underlined that to realize the goals, governments must launch corresponding public policies in pricing, taxation and finance to facilitate the low-carbon development.

He gave the example of the Chinese government's investment of 1 billion U.S. dollars in improving energy efficiency in 2016, which was able to convince both the public and the private sectors to invest a large sum of money into the field.

Speaking of China's efforts to promote south-south cooperation with government funds, Xie noted that China had provided training for more than 1,600 professionals from over 120 developing countries, to help them enhance the capability of adapting to climate change and raising funds for relevant projects.

In addition, China is now working to implement the project to establish ten low-carbon demonstration zones and 100 climate adaptation and relief projects in developing countries, he added.

The theme of Tuesday's summit is "public and private finance in support of climate action," which brought together high-ranking officials from some 50 countries and nearly 4,000 representatives from non-government actors including international organizations, enterprises and research institutions.

Macron announced the plan to host the summit on Aug. 28, about three months after U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a landmark climate deal reached at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. Enditem