China leads the way in South-South climate change cooperation

China is leading the way in South-South cooperation to tackle climate change challenges, as much of its technology, experience and learning in protecting the environment are proving useful when shared with other emerging economies, experts say.

They say that much of Chinese technology fits emerging economies' need to realistically reduce pollution levels, and is affordable. This means China's cooperation with other developing nations will play a big part in achieving global climate change targets.

China's industrial ability to produce on a large scale also allows the rapid commercialization of new technology, which then can be exported to many more emerging economies as Chinese companies go global.

"China can easily and readily transplant technologies and knowhow which are applicable to manufacturing, assembly lines, extraction and exploration of raw materials and energy to countries in the southeast Asia region, as well as to Africa, where it has major investments," says Christopher Bovis, a business law professor at the University of Hull.

"By leading the south-south co-operation and committing towards coordinated Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, China assumes the role and responsibility of a leader in the making of the new international treaty on carbon emissions reduction," says Bovis.

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions refers to emission reduction amounts each country has voluntarily set as a target. Ahead of the Paris conference, most countries have already submitted their INDCs. The EU will cut its emissions by 40%, compared with 1990 levels, by 2030. The US will cut its emissions by 26% to 28%, compared with 2005 levels, by 2025.

Already China has set itself very rigorous goals to reduce carbon emission. According to plans it has submitted to the UN ahead of the Paris talks, the country aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65% from 2005 levels.

In addition, China said it would increase the share of non-fossil fuels as part of its primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030, and peak emissions by around the same point.

Meanwhile, China has also demonstrated that it is keen to help other countries tackle climate change, especially within the context of cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals announced at the United Nations summit in September, which sets out the goals of development globally for the next 15 years.

During his visit to the US in September, President Xi Jinping announced that China would set up a China South-South Climate Cooperation Fund to provide 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion_ to help developing countries tackle climate change.

In addition, Xi said that China would set up another fund with initial spending of $2 billion for South-South Cooperation and to aid developing countries to implement the post-2015 Development Agenda.

But experts point out that China's contribution to global climate change reduction efforts is much more than its own emissions reduction or financial support for others, as knowledge and resource-sharing can make a big impact to other emerging economies.

"Growing economies have the opportunity to build low carbon energy systems from inception, avoiding some of the challenges of retrofitting faced by the north. Building these systems also presents unique challenges. By working together, they can combine resources to accelerate progress and minimize costs," says Tom Jennings, Director, Policy and Markets at the Carbon Trust, a London based non-profit organization.

In particular, Jennings has pointed out that Chinese companies in wind, solar and hydro powerhave became strong competitors internationally and their technology is now exported all over the world. Notable companies with international operations include the windpower firmsGoldwind and Longyuan, and the solar energy company Yingli.

In addition, Jennings says China's experience in setting up and operating carbon trading schemes would prove useful when shared with countries like India and Brazil.

China has already set up seven pilot regional emissions trading schemes, and this year Xi announced that China will launch a national trading scheme in 2017, which is expected to become the world's largest.

Jennings' views are echoed by David Tyfield, a researcher in environmental innovation and sociology at Lancaster University. Tyfield says one example of China's useful experience in making gradual improvements in environmental protection is the shifting away from coal consumption.

"Ideally, from a climate perspective, coal would be abandoned as soon as possible and replaced first by lower greenhouse gas fossil fuels and renewables, before fossil fuels are phased out altogether. However, from a development perspective, the rapid shift away from coal seems unlikely since coal is cheap, abundant and easy to use."

"China, however, has done a lot of great work to replace old coal power with cleaner, more complete combustion. If its experiments in carbon capture and storage continue to progress, this would also be a key technology," Tyfield says.

Carbon capture and storage is the process of capturing waste CO2 from fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere. Australia, Canada, China, Europe and the United States are leading the development of these technologies, which are still at a demonstration stage.

Tyfield says the experience China has gained on coal consumption reduction are useful for countries like India and Indonesia, both of which are heavy coal consumers.

In addition, Tyfield says Chinese innovation has developed a whole range of low-carbon technologies that are possibly lower-tech than the ‘frontier' of high technology. "Precisely because of that, they are cheap enough and easy enough to engineer that they could be massively deployed even across relatively poorer countries."

China also has many experiences on green finance to share with other developing countries because of the huge efforts China has invested to develop a strong market for green bonds and other green finance products, says Sean Kidney, CEO and Co-founder of Climate Bond Initiative.

Kidney says that the climate finance initiatives greatly depend on infrastructure building, financing and regulation, in which China has extensive experience.

Green finance is a new concept globally, where government uses initiatives to drive private sector investment into environmentally friendly projects. The Chinese government has dedicated great importance to green finance, and has set up an international experts consulting group to push forward these initiatives, of which Kidney is a member.

"For China, implementation of green finance measures requires close alignment between its financial sector, regulatory sector, and policy objectives of the government. For example, the activities of the People's Bank of China will be coherent with the policy objectives of the 13th five year plan. This is a model that would work well in many other emerging economies."

"In contrast, the alignment between these different parties in developed economies is less. For example, the European Central Bank could be practicing green quantitative easing, as this would reflect the objectives of the European Union," he says.

Kidney believes China-led multinational institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and New Development Bank (formerly BRICS Bank) would play a key role in spreading China's experiences on green finance to other emerging countries.

"These institutions will promote investment into infrastructure projects of emerging economies, green investment, and will help to propose best solutions for infrastructure projects for the long term in emerging economies," he says.

To contact the reporter: cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com