China might announce a “peaking year” for its carbon emissions in the first half of 2015 when the country would present its contributions to address global climate change, said China’s chief climate negotiator on Monday.
China was trying to present its “national determined contributions” in the first half of next year. Among the contributions, “the peaking year might be included”, Xie Zhenhua, deputy chief of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters during an informal ministerial conference in Berlin.
The annual conference, known as Petersberg Climate Dialogue, was organized by the German federal government and attended by some 35 ministers this year.
Countries are on a track to reach a new global agreement on climate change in Paris by the end of 2015. When meeting in Warsaw in 2013, governments agreed that they should prepare their “national contributions” towards the agreement before the Paris conference.
In the last rounds of United Nations’ climate negotiations, however, parties showed their different understanding of the “contributions”.
While developing countries insisted to comprehensively include elements of mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer, capability building and transparent of supports, developed countries focused mainly on mitigation, or emission cuts, in their viewpoints.
During the conference in Berlin, Xie reiterated that developed countries shall offer more financial and technological assistance to developing countries for their climate protection measures.
He said China, as the largest developing country, was making efforts to address climate change, including piloting carbon markets in seven provinces and cities which were in different developing stages.
“We are drawing lessons from mistakes, and of course some successful experience you have made,” he said, referring to the European Union’s carbon trading system which were criticized for falling prices for emission allowance.
“I think the problem is you issued too many free quotas and the emission reduction targets are not enough, which makes the carbon market in Europe very sluggish,” Xie said.
Regarding the negotiations on the new agreement, he said the process should be transparent and broadly participated in order to reach a result “acceptable to all parties”.
The final agreement, he said, shall be participated by all parties and the implementation of the agreement should help improve the parties’ economy and the livelihood of their people.
