Technology sharing key for climate

Chinese representative calls for cooperation to safeguard world

Xie Zhenhua, Chinese special representative on climate change affairs, has called for the establishment of an international mechanism for technology cooperation and transfer as the world promotes technological innovation to curb climate change.

He made the proposal when addressing a conference to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China's joining the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was hosted by the China Meteorological Administration on Friday.

"The core of tackling climate change is how to achieve a win-win situation as the world safeguards the common interest of global climate safety while each country seeks its national interest in maintaining sustainable economic and social development. There also is a need to transform the challenge of climate change into opportunities for green and low-carbon development," Xie said.

In October, the UN panel issued a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 C above preindustrial levels. It highlighted a number of effects that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5 C instead of 2 C, the goal set in the Paris climate agreement.

Xie said technological innovation and breakthroughs are needed as the world explores the feasibility of a 1.5 C increase. Tackling climate change relies to a great extent on the cost, performance and availability of future technologies.

The world needs to strengthen technological cooperation and innovate in designing an international mechanism to transfer technologies to further control greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Xie also called for proactive promotion of green finance.

"Finance is a guarantee for strengthened action to combat climate change. Only with a flow of funds in accordance with low-carbon emissions and climate-resilient development can the research and development of relevant technologies and products be accelerated," he said.

Such a flow will also help broaden the market and help reform and optimize industrial production and operations, he added.

While the latest report by the UN panel warned that it's increasingly urgent for the world to take action to combat climate change, it lacks sufficient research to point to a feasible solution to address the cost challenges of reaching no more than 1.5 C. The world still needs to keep working toward the 2 C goal of the Paris agreement while making efforts to try to achieve the 1.5 C level, he said.

The UN panel has published five reports and will unveil another one in 2022. A total of 148 Chinese scientists have been selected as main authors of the reports, said Liu Yaming, head of China Meteorological Administration, addressing the conference.

She also said the number of Chinese main authors to these reports has been on the rise and these reports have quoted an increasing number of research papers from Chinese scientists.

(China Daily 11/10/2018 page3)