World climate players hail China's climate actions

BONN - Environmental officials, leaders of various environmental organizations worldwide and climate experts attending the UN climate talks in Bonn have commended China's climate actions both domestically and globally.

Barbara Hendricks, German environment minister, told Xinhua that she is aware that China planned to build far fewer thermal power plants than five years ago, and to generate more and more power from renewable energy, which means China is on a good path of development.

Dylan Murray, policy advisor with the Nature Conservancy, told Xinhua China is taking real steps.

"There have been clear signals, whether it is limiting coal pollution, or removing gasoline cars out of the roads. There are some really big commitments coming from the Chinese government to tackle climate change," Murray said.

Norbert Salomon, deputy director of the Emission Control, Safety of Installations and Transport at the German Federal Ministry for Environment, praised China for its development in electric mobility.

"When it comes to implementing the Paris Agreement, we already are and will be increasingly learning from what is happening in the area of sustainable mobility in China," he said.

Salomon also hailed China's role at global level climate actions.

"China's engagement and contributions to combat climate change is itself an inestimable value for global community," he said, adding that without China's efforts, the Paris Agreement would not have been possible.

Brad Page, CEO of Global CCS (carbon capture and storage) Institute, told Xinhua that China is accelerating very quickly in tackling climate through Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), explaining that China is next only to the U.S. in terms of the number of CCUS projects.

He said China acted really fast in various climate actions domestically.

"When much of the rest of the world is trying to work out whether an emission trading is something you should do, China is implementing it. When the rest of the world is still struggling with what they should do with the CCUS, China is doing it, and the same goes to limiting coal consumption and deploying renewables."

Constanze Haug, head of secretariat of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), told Xinhua that China played a role as a model to other developing countries in climate field.

"We are working with partners in Latin America, and many other developing and emerging economies. They are really looking to China to see whether it is possible to reduce emissions or to stabilize emissions while keeping economic growth and also reaping side benefits from climate protection such as improved air," said Haug.

Looking into the future, Ottmar Edenhofer, a leading climate expert in Germany and Deputy Director & Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is confident that China will deliver what it promises.

"China has strong commitment at international scale, and I fully understand that implementing such policies at national scale will face obstacles and problems, but nevertheless when China is committed to doing something, China will deliver," said Edenhofer.