The COP28 agreement is stuck on fossil fuels. We will know this Tuesday, December 12 if an agreement could be found, in particular thanks to the Chinese paradox. The world’s largest polluter played the role of facilitator in Dubai.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stéphane Lagarde
It is not yet time to take stock, but the Chinese state media which have widely covered this COP28 are already listing China’s good actions in the fight against global warming in Dubai. And China is a paradox. It is both the worst student in the class in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, but is positioned at the top of the table for the production of renewable energies. And since the Paris agreement, Beijing has made the climate an argument of its soft power. “ This is the most difficult conference. There are so many problems to solve. I counted over 200. It’s easy to add things up, but it’s hard to make deductions. Everyone must do their best to make this meeting successful. “, said Xie Zhenhua, China’s special envoy on climate change, who is retiring this month.
China wants to do its best, based on its well-understood interests. The country, which has few places for carbon capture and storage, preferred to support and sign the global commitment to renewable energies which aims to triple its green energies by 2030. It is in the well-understood interest of this country with 1.5 billion mouths to feed and which has achieved food self-sufficiency. a strategic priority. Chinese experts know how global warming contributes to reducing useful agricultural areas, already under attack by urban development.
Biodiversity Initiative
If China criticizes the future carbon tax of the European Union, it has thus renewed the promise during COP28 to meet its carbon objectives – peak emissions in 2030 and neutrality in 2060. The country reaffirms in passing that the revival of coal is there to respond to the electricity glut of megacities, and especially of factories in the world workshop at the end of the Covid crisis. But China says that with a shift to growth based more on domestic consumption, the need for coal should reduce.
Finally, China has just announced that it is taking the lead of the “Kunming-Mongolia initiative”, following COP15 on biodiversity, shared between Kuming in the Chinese province of Yunnan and Montreal. A way for the Chinese to preserve biodiversity, but also to strengthen their climate resilience. It seems that in the China and United States tandem, eagerly awaited to move things forward at this COP28, Beijing is pedaling as fast, or even faster, than Washington.
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