Work together to keep Earth green and safe

The debate on United Nations climate change conference will continue, even though the 194 countries managed to come up with the Durban Platform. After the drama and confusion in the South African city, Tian Wei, moderator and anchor of CCTV News who also serves as special advisor to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) China, interviewed UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.

Q: Are you satisfied with the outcome of the Durban conference? What do you think was the biggest challenge the conference handled in the two weeks?

A: In Durban, governments faced the extremely difficult question of coming to a unified agreement on how to create a new global regime to address climate change. The conference could not have had a timelier task - a recent report by the Global Carbon Project stated that carbon dioxide emissions reached record levels in 2010. The outcome of the conference, also known as the Durban Platform, represents a package of decisions Taken together, these decisions represent important progress in the UN's work on climate change, and the (UN) secretary-general has called on the parties to quickly implement these decisions and to continue working together.

The Durban climate conference took decisions that are crucial for the direction and pace of international action to combat climate change, and all countries were involved in these decisions. The agreement will help lay the groundwork for how countries, large and small, deal with the opportunities and challenges of transitioning their economies toward low-emission and climate-resilient development.

The parties tackled the biggest challenges, including a new legal regime for climate change encompassing all signatories, the future of the Kyoto Protocol and the establishment of the "Green Climate Fund".

Q: What will be the UNDP's mission in facing the challenges of climate change after the conference?

A: UNDP is involved in many aspects of the climate change challenge. We are working closely with individual countries and in global conferences like Durban to support efforts that tackle the causes and impacts of climate changeWe are committed to assisting countries to move the agenda forward.

Durban made progress in important areas like adaptation to climate change, technology development and transfer, and climate finance. UNDP provides substantial technical assistance to developing countries on climate change issues. We aim to meet the very high demand for capacity building to access climate finance.

Q: How do you see the role of China at the Durban conference and beyond on climate change?

A: China's agreement to join the consensus was an important factor in the success of Durban. The task ahead for China, as for all countries, is to lift the level of ambition on greenhouse gas reduction, with the objective of seeing that the world as a whole keeps temperature rise to below 2 C above pre-industrial levels.

It has been estimated that if the world does not depart from business as usual, by 2080 an additional 600 million people may face malnutrition, and an additional 1.8 billion people - more than the current population of China and the USA put together - may face water shortages. China itself is vulnerable to climate change.

China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) aims for a low-carbon economy and society. The goals and targets in the plan demonstrate China's ambition to reduce fossil fuel consumption, promote low-carbon energy sources, and become more climate-resilient.

UNDP has worked in China for more than 30 years. We are proud to be working alongside China to address a number of the big development challenges of today: uneven development, poverty and inequality, and climate change and environmental degradation.

Q: What do you think about the deep divisions between the developing and developed countries? What should be the attitude of both sides in trying to resolve the differences? Is a global mechanism still working in our world today?

A: The divisions are based on longstanding differences in power and wealth, but our world is seeing a slow convergence as developed countries' economies experience slow, or no, growth, and developing economies grow at a much faster pace. With that convergence, we are also seeing shifts in the geopolitical sphere - as represented in the emergence of the G20, which brings together the major economies from both the developed and developing worlds.

Further convergence would be assisted by a determination to complete both the WTO Doha Development Round and the climate negotiations. Fair trade rules will assist developing countries, and a new climate agreement, which delivers significant support for developing countries to make the transition to climate-resilient green economies, will bring great benefits.

For these critical talks to succeed, we need renewed commitments to multilateralism. There are many challenges facing our world that cannot be resolved by countries acting alone. We have to work together, globally, to secure a peaceful and prosperous future.

(China Daily 12/17/2011 page5)