SCIO briefing: China policies and actions on climate change
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 25, 2014
Hu Kaihong:
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to the press briefing hosted by the State Council Information Office. The UN Lima Climate Change Conference is just around the corner, and China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change (2014) is being issued today. In order to help you better learn about the report and China's position and propositions on the Lima Conference, we've invited Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Research Commission, and an old friend of yours, to give briefings on related matters and take questions from you. Su Wei, head of the Climate Change Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, is also attending the press conference today. Now let's welcome Vice Minister Xie to give us an introduction.
Xie Zhenhua:
Friends from the media, good morning. Welcome to the launch event of China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change (2014). We gather here today mainly to issue the report. The annual report is to introduce China's actions and achievements regarding addressing climate change every year. Today we will focus on China's actions [on addressing climate change] as well as introduce China's positions on the multilateral process, since the Chinese delegation is about to leave for Lima, and the upcoming conference has received much media attention.
The Chinese government is highly attentive to climate change. China has fulfilled its promises according to the conventions and requirements of each conference. On May 16, the Chinese government approved the Kyoto Protocol Amendment, which establishes the second commitment period, enabling it to take effect. In order to achieve the goal of reducing 40 to 45 percent of carbon intensity by 2020, by 2013 China's CO2 emissions per unit of per capita GDP had already been reduced by 28.56 percent from 2005 levels. In the first three quarters this year, China's energy consumption intensity and carbon intensity further dropped: the former by 4.6 percent year on year and the latter by five percent. The amount of forested area has already surpassed the target set out in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. Non-fossil fuel energy accounts for 9.8 percent of China's primary energy consumption. China is also working to adapt to climate change. The country's ability to adapt to climate change has been enhanced in agriculture, forestry, water, ocean conservation, and meteorology. 42 provinces and cities that have been chosen to conduct low carbon pilot programs are carrying out their work smoothly, and they have made basic explorations into how to develop low carbon models that fit their unique characteristics. Seven provinces and cities are carrying out carbon trading pilot programs; 13.75 million tons of CO2 worth more than 500 million yuan have been traded as of October, 2014, and progress in this area is also quite smooth. In addition, China issued the National Plan on Addressing Climate Change (2014-2020) on September 19, enhancing the top-level plans to respond to climate change. In June, we carried out a “National Low Carbon Day” educational awareness-raising activity, involving a wider public in the response to climate change. These are the actions we have adopted and achievement we have reached this year, demonstrating our resolve in addressing climate change with practical action.
China has also made a vigorous effort to facilitate “South-South cooperation” in addressing climate change. China has devoted 270 million yuan since 2011 to help developing countries enhance their capacity to address climate change, and trained nearly 2,000 climate change officials and professionals from developing countries. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said at the UN Climate Summit on September 23 that China will vigorously advance South-South cooperation in climate change and double its annual financial support for the establishment of the South-South Cooperation Fund on Climate Change starting next year.
China and the United States issued a China-U.S. Joint Announcement on Climate Change on November 12, announcing their respective objectives for action addressing climate change after 2020. In the meantime, the two counties have also pledged to carry out a series of collaborative programs in low carbon development, environmental protection, clean energy and other fields, showcasing China's resolve to accelerate low carbon development and make more contributions to addressing climate change. We will continue to hold onto the attitude of taking responsibility for the well-being of the Chinese people and the long-term development of all humankind, actively addressing climate change, shouldering international obligations that are in line with China's current development, abilities and due responsibility and making active contributions to the protection of the global climate and environment. Now Mr. Su and I are delighted to answer your questions. Thank you.
Hu Kaihong:
Thanks, Vice Minister Xie. Now the floor is open. Please identify which media outlet you are from before you ask your question.
CCTV:
I have a question for Vice Minister Xie. The Lima Climate Change Conference will be opening soon. The conference is expected to pave the way for a global climate deal in 2015. What is China's expectation of the conference's achievements? Also, what is China's position toward the global climate deal in 2015?
Xie Zhenhua:
Director Su Wei is the deputy head of the Chinese delegation as well as the chief climate change negotiator. He will answer the question for you.
Su Wei:
Thank you, Minister Xie. The Lima Climate Change Conference, which will be held from Dec.1 to 12 this year in Lima, Peru, is an important step for the 2015 Conference of the Parties in Paris to reach an agreement for the international community to strengthen action to respond to climate change after 2020. The Chinese government hopes the Lima Conference can implement the consensus before 2020 that was reached previously. Developed countries should reduce their emissions substantially as well as meet their promises to provide support in terms of capital, technology transfers and capacity building to developing countries. Moreover, we hope the Lima Conference can push forward to reach an agreement on international parties' response to climate change after 2020 at 2015 Conference of the Parties in Paris on the basis of related principles of the convention, especially the equality principle, common but differentiated responsibilities and the respective capabilities principles. We hope the conference can achieve the desired result and maintain the effectiveness of the multilateral process on the basis of the principles of openness, transparency,extensive participation and consensus through consultation.
The 2015 deal will make an arrangement for strengthening action on climate change after 2020. China believes that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol provide an important political, legal and moral basis for the international community to cooperate on climate change. In the past 20 years, the convention and the protocol have proven to be effective legal documents. The international agreement on addressing climate change after 2020 should be built on this basis and in accordance with the principles, regulations and framework of the convention, especially the equality and common but differentiated responsibilities principles. The agreement handles climate change mitigation and adaptation to climate change, makes developed countries provide capital, technology transfers and capacity building support and makes developed countries' financial support and actions taken by all parties transparent in responding to climate change. The most important thing is to promote extensive international cooperation and promote the sustainable development of the world through the framework of the convention.
The gap between developed countries and developing countries is still very big. Economic growth, social development and poverty elimination are still the main tasks of the developing countries. After 2020, the developing countries will still lag far behind the developed countries, in terms of national conditions, development stages and actual ability. That's why the common but differentiated responsibilities principle is necessary. Therefore, we should face the reality when we reach the 2015 deal and related institutional arrangements should also reflect the common but differentiated responsibilities principle between developed countries and developing ones.
Countries should strengthen cooperation and try their best to protect the global climate environment and make their own contribution. Developed countries should act on the principles and regulations of the convention and continue to take the lead in reducing emissions and provide capital, technology and capacity building support to developing countries, playing a leading role. Besides, after 2020, developing countries should take active measures to promote sustainable development and take further actions and measures to slow and adapt to climate change and improve their ability to combat climate change with the capital, technology and capacity building support of developed countries, based on their national conditions. China, as a developing country, will take on corresponding international responsibility according to its national conditions, development stage and obligations. After 2020, it will take more action to contribute to fighting global climate change. Thank you.
China News Service:
After the Beijing APEC Summit, China and the United States published the "Joint Announcement on Climate Change”, in which the two sides released their post-2020 plan to tackle climate change. The international community has paid a lot of attention to the Announcement and has expressed different views on it. I would like to ask Mr. Xie, how do you evaluate the issue?
Xie Zhenhua:
After the Beijing APEC Summit, the leaders of China and the United States published the “Joint Announcement on Climate Change”, in which the two countries released their respective post-2020 targets to tackle climate change. We think the declaration is a win-win decision for both sides, and its content shows that the two countries will strengthen not only policy dialogue but also pragmatic cooperation, which is surely a new highlight of the new type of relationship between the two great powers. Before the Lima meeting, as the world's biggest developing country and the biggest developed country, and also the two major CO2 and greenhouse gas emitting countries, China and the United States releasing their emissions reduction targets could promote positive progress to be gained during the up-coming Lima and Paris meetings. The declaration will also uphold common but differentiated responsibilities, and different countries should act and contribute in line with their own national conditions. It can also promote a multi-lateral process and inject positive energy into the negotiation. In a word, we give a very positive evaluation of the declaration.
In the Announcement, the two countries released their respective post-2020 targets to tackle climate change. The United States intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its emissions by 26-28 percent below its 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28 percent. China intends to achieve a CO2 emissions peak around 2030 and to make its best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in the primary energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030. We can see that both sides have released their own targets. According to the decision at the Warsaw meeting, all countries should release their targets in the first quarter of 2015. China and the United States, the two major greenhouse gas emitting countries, have already released their targets ahead of the schedule, which clearly expressed our attitude to promote a multi-lateral process. China and the United States have released their respective targets in line with our different national conditions, which also shows the difference between developing and developed countries. In addition, it also tells us that in order to resolve the problem, we should not only transform the development mode, promote transformation and upgrading, but also develop new and clear energy. That is also the development direction of the future, and the contribution the two countries have made towards combating climate change.
Under the framework of the China-U.S. Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), the two countries have already cooperated in seven prior fields. In the declaration, the two sides added a series of extra fields of cooperation, and clarified detailed cooperation items. Those fields and items are directly related to climate change and emissions reduction. It also expresses the determination and courage of the two sides to tackle climate change. The Declaration is win-win, and a highlight of the cooperation between the two sides, which will surely promote the multi-lateral process.
For China, the target could force us to establish a system to speed up the transformation of the development mode, structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading, and increase the quality and benefit of economic growth. It shows that China is capable of considering both the national and international conditions, before setting a path both for climate change and for economic development, livelihood improvement and environmental protection; a green, low-carbon and cyclic development path. Therefore, in my opinion, the Joint Declaration will pay a positive role both at home and abroad. Thanks!
The Financial Times:
Some American environmental groups believe that, if China works harder, its peak coal use about 2030 can be adjusted quite a bit. Yet, in Lima and Paris, China still continued to back up its target date. So my first question is: do you think China can move up the date a little bit if the country works harder? The United States Republican Party says it does not support the Obama administration's emissions reduction target. So, my second question is: do you think China will be willing to accept the U.S. target if the Republican Party doesn't support it?
Xie Zhenhua:
The joint statement has already published China's peak target year. Your question was also raised by an AFP reporter last time, saying “Why ‘about 2030,' why not ‘before 2030?'” I answered the question then in the following way. This scheme underwent careful refinement over a period of one-and-a-half to two years. Because of the situation of China's economic and social development, we still face many uncertainties, so that is why we determined that peak usage will occur “around 2030.” The word "around" should be treated as be more scientific and more objective. There are still 16 years to go before we reach 2030. There are a lot of uncertainties that may affect the situation in these 16 years. The determination of a very accurate time or number is, in fact, not scientific in this case. So we think "around 2030" is comparatively objective. In the coming 16 years, we will face a lot of uncertainties in social development and energy demand. For example, the target that developed countries previously promised to achieve before 2020 is no longer feasible because of the outbreak of the financial crisis. Developed countries also promised to fulfill their promise of US$100 billion in support [for climate change action] before 2020, but this is now considered out of the question. Developed countries say they have no money because of domestic economic difficulties, so there are a lot of uncertainties in economic and social development. I think the target of "around 2030" is scientific and objective. However, we have been very clear that we must make every effort to achieve the target as soon as possible. This also reflects a situation in which we not only pay attention to the science, but in which we also do our utmost to keep our promises.
On another note, we have noticed that the U.S. Republican Party is indeed critical of the U.S. target. This is a U.S. domestic politics issue, so, of course, we cannot comment. However, we hope that all countries will actively respond to the challenges of climate change because climate change is the biggest challenge to human survival and further development. Global temperatures are now rising more and more quickly, creating abnormal weather patterns. The United States has encountered several severe hurricanes in recent years, causing heavy damage. That has given Americans a unified understanding of the scientific facts of climate change in their country. Now, the key issue is to take action. All countries should decide to take relatively forceful action according to their own conditions. As to whether they have done their best to achieve the target, and whether the measures are forceful enough, I think that, after the announcement, the international community will have a relatively fairer and more reasonable evaluation. In regard to China's announced target, we are completely confident. Thank you.
China Radio International:
My question is about the emissions reduction of CO2 per unit of GDP. As we announced earlier this year, China's carbon intensity will be brought down by four percent. I would like to know, how is this objective being fulfilled? Also, since China's carbon intensity dropped by 28.5 percent by the end of last year, what measures are you taking to ensure the overall objective in carbon intensity reduction is met throughout the Twelfth Five-Year Plan? Thank you.
Xie Zhenhua:
As per the goal we have announced, carbon intensity in China will be brought down by 40-45 percent based on the basis number of 2005, consumption of non-fossil energy as primary energy will reach around 15 percent, and forest reserves will increase by 1.3 billion cubic meters. These are our promises to the international community; they have been approved by the National People's Congress and are legally binding, meaning that they will be fulfilled despite any difficulties.
Through our efforts, China's carbon intensity dropped 28.56 percent by the end of last year, equivalent to 2.5 billion tons less of CO2 emissions. Now that the Twelfth Five-Year Plan has required that we cut carbon intensity by 17 percent from 2011 to 2015, we should bring down carbon intensity by 3.9-4 percent this year and next year. In the first nine months of this year, China's carbon intensity fell by five percent and energy consumption intensity down by 4.6 percent.
If we continue with the current efforts, there won't be a problem in cutting energy consumption intensity by 4.6 percent and carbon intensity by five percent by the end of this year, nor will it be difficult to reach the 17 percent target by the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. Our substantial efforts include optimizing the industrial structure and the structure of energy consumption, besides energy saving campaigns in manufacturing, construction, public transport, and the public sector.
As to reducing the carbon intensity by 28.56 percent, China has a large total consumption, meaning that 28.56 percent of the total amount is still a considerate amount. A World Bank calculation showed that between 1990 and 2010, China's energy savings accounted for 58 percent of the world's total, which showed that China accounted for more than half of the world's energy savings during that period.
Apart from that, to reach the goal, we should optimize the country's energy structure in vigorously developing non-fossil fuel energies, which mainly includes nuclear power, hydroelectric power, wind power and solar power. Among these sectors, China is building the world's largest nuclear power capacity. From 2007 to the end of last year, China's hydropower capacity doubled, while its wind power capacity was 60 times as much and that of PV power 280 times as much.
United Nations data show that China accounts for 24 percent of the world's renewable energy capacity. Of last year's increase in the renewable energy capacity worldwide, China accounted for 37 percent. These are the signs of China's intensive effort and rapid development in energy saving and optimizing its energy structure. Nonetheless, we are striving to lower the country's carbon intensity by 45 percent by 2020 – a reflection of China's effort and determination.
China Radio National:
China has now started carbon emission trading trials in seven provinces and cities. How are the trials going? As far as I know, there are other places that are very interested in establishing such trading platforms. But there are sources saying that the government is not going to expand the trial but is going to start to build a national carbon market. Can you talk about that?
Su Wei:
Carbon trading is an issue of common concern. The Decisions of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee acknowledged the market's "decisive" role in allocating resources and raised the issue of implementing a trading system for carbon emissions. The 12th Five-year Plan clearly stated that China would establish a carbon emission trading market step by step. Following the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we started carbon emission trading trials in seven provinces and cities. After years of experimentation, the trials are generally going smoothly. Vice Minister Xie briefly introduced the market operations in his opening speech.
Carbon emission trading is a new, it requires exploration and there is no existing model to follow. In my opinion, we must accumulate experience through practice and bear in mind China's situation and basic conditions. In the last couple of years, the seven pilot locations finished the institutional and legal construction for the trading system and established related regulations and platforms. They successively opened to business from the end of last year to the first half of 2014. I would say they are generally operating smoothly.
We think the pilot programs have already borne fruit. The experiences and good practices drawn from the pilot programs have laid a foundation for expanding the range of carbon emissions trading. The public are more conscious about controlling greenhouse gas emissions, energy conservation and prices. The whole society has a better understanding of carbon emission trading and has attached greater attention to it. Carbon emission trading not only mitigates climate change, but is also closely related to ordinary people's interests. The regulations and institutions established during the pilot programs will facilitate the establishment of a carbon emissions trading market. Besides, we have asked key enterprises and industries to report their greenhouse gas emissions, another preparation for the next step of our plan. Therefore, everything is prepared for China to launch carbon emissions trading. The CPC Central Committee has listed carbon emission trading as one of its significant tasks for this year's economic structure reform. We will, following the requirements of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, issue a plan concerning the control of the total carbon emission volume and distribution mechanism as soon as possible. Moreover, we are working on the administrative measures for carbon emission trading, which are expected to be released by the end of this year and will be a solid legal base for the trading. That echoes the requirements of the rule of law and law-based administration put forward at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. We will accelerate building a national carbon emission trading market and put it into operation in 2016. It will be a long journey with continuous accumulation and improvement. We hope China will have a mature carbon emissions trading market by the end of the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020).
Reuters:
China has to control its coal consumption if the country wants to realize the goals for non-fossil energy use and CO2 emission peak. My question is, when do you expect the coal consumption to reach a peak? Do you think there is a need to set up a binding goal?
Xie Zhenhua:
We are working on the 13th Five-Year plan. It will be examined by the National People's Congress before it is passed, and when it is passed, all the targets will be legally binding. They must be enforced rigidly herein China. There is no doubt about that. Just now, the journalist next to you mentioned that the two parties in the United States hold different views on this issue, and we are worried about that. There is a precedent for this problem. The Kyoto Protocol was not passed in the United States because of domestic political disputes, and we are worried that the same thing will occur with the 2015 climate agreement. Discussions about this issue have been initiated in Durban. Regarding “common but differentiated responsibilities,” China and the United States have both agreed to this in our joint statement. In the debate about whether the goals should be decided by nongovernmental organizations or governments, both sides reached an agreement to do what they can according to their own conditions, abilities, development and historical responsibilities. Therefore, the goals announced by China and the United States were set up by each country individually, and I believe they were developed in line with the two countries' specific conditions.
Next, we need to hold negotiations to evaluate the gap between each country's targets and the world's long-term goal and find a way to narrow that gap.
As for your second question about whether the 2015 climate agreement is legally binding, I hope it can be so in other countries, because it must be legally binding in China when it is passed by the country's top legislature. Only in this way can we take action together. The issue is under negotiation. We are open about how it appears in law and how binding it is in law. We believe that the form of the agreement is determined by its content. We hope it can be legally binding, but given the conditions of other countries, we understand that there should be negotiations to find a path that everyone can accept. Nonetheless, it must be legally binding in China.
Regarding the emission peak, I have mentioned that China will see a peak around 2030. This is a comprehensive target that will be realized through a variety of policies such as saving energy, increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy and non-fossil energy, improving carbon sink forests and enhancing adaptability. It is essential to extensively change our development model in order to save energy. In regard to structural adjustment, it will be important to adjust our energy structure, especially to develop renewable energy and nuclear power, in addition to industrial restructuring and economic restructuring. In this process, energy supply must be guaranteed, but emissions will be cut significantly. In particular, coal consumption will be reduced. The increase in the use of non-fossil energy will lead to a drop in the use of fossil energy, and among fossil energy, natural gas is comparatively clean, so in fact, the majority of measures will be aimed at curbing coal consumption. As for when the peak will occur, it depends on how developed our technologies are. Take nuclear power as an example. We are working on the AP1000 program. It has been delayed for 34 months because the technologies we used were from the United States and there were some unsolved technical problems. We have also run into some bottlenecks in core renewable energy technologies. For this reason, we hope to intensify international cooperation in this field and participate in technological cooperation and technology transfer to allow everyone to have access to low-carbon technologies. In this way, our dependence on coal can be reduced more quickly and renewable energy will see better development. Renewable energy has a bright future. It is estimated that the global market will be worth US$7 trillion, so there is huge potential to tap.
Besides, it is estimated that infrastructure construction around the world will require US$90 trillion over the next 15 years. I think most new facilities will adopt green technologies. This means that low-carbon technologies, businesses and products will see rapid development that will be realized through global cooperation.
PLA Daily:
Buzzwords like "APEC blue" and "new normal" are entering our daily life. My question is: when can we have the "APEC blue" become a normal part in life, after a series of new policies and regulations?
Xie Zhenhua:
Environmental problems, especially air pollution, have direct links with a society's mode of development, its energy structure and its lifestyle. Our current measures aimed at tackling climate change, including efforts to save energy, raise energy efficiency, develop renewable energy and increase the area of carbon sink forests, are in sync with efforts to solve air pollution. Reducing CO2 emissions is in fact helpful in reducing levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, smoke, PM10 and PM2.5, and other pollutants in the atmosphere. Our current measures are quite helpful in curbing air pollution.
As the Reuters reporter also mentioned just now, we should lower the proportion of coal consumption, and we are taking concrete and fundamental measures to solve environmental problems. In 2030, air quality in China will be remarkably improved, and APEC blue just will not be a concern at all. The pleasant weather during Beijing's APEC meetings has let the public know that we are able to improve air quality as long as proper measures are taken. This trial helped us figure out Beijing's environmental capacity.
These measures, which were implemented for a very short period of time, could indeed affect society's economic development. To solve the problem, we would like to unveil more effective countermeasures, put them into effect for a longer period of time and enforce them more strictly. Having the APEC blue on a daily basis is not a mission impossible, and you just witnessed it. We took the right measures, although the enforcement remained an issue.
China Times:
International experience tells us that if peak carbon emissions are achieved, a country's GDP will decrease by around three percent. If China achieves peak of CO2 emissions in 2030, what level will the country's GDP drop to? Can we endure that?
Xie Zhenhua:
Although international experience tells us that, I'm afraid I cannot agree. We have studied the experience of the United States, the EU and other developed countries which have already achieved their peak greenhouse gas emissions. The results show that GDP [in these places] has not decreased three percent. Different countries have different conditions related to their own industrial structure, their energy structure, industrialization, urbanization, and technological development. Technical revolution and innovation can resolve a great number of problems, but supporting policies are also needed. China could not maintain two-digit growth during such a long period of 30 or 40 years, and the growth rate will surely decrease as the volume enlarges. But I cannot agree that it will decrease three percent. We are trying to maintain economic development while increasing the quality and benefits of economic growth and reducing CO2 emissions. The central government has created these targets after two years of debate and research.
China Daily:
We are all concerned about the funding. You just mentioned the funding for South-South Cooperation. Can you explain the purpose of establishing such a fund in 2015? My second question is, as the National Plan on Climate Change and the newly issued energy strategy both cover the period ending in 2020, how will the two goals for 2030 be realized in the mid- and long term?
Su Wei:
The funding for South-South Cooperation has little impact on present international cooperation to address climate change. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, developed countries should fulfill the obligations of providing sufficient funding to developing countries to cope with climate change. However, the funding negotiations, including those for technology transfer, have made little progress over the past two decades. Developing countries have no funding, but empty promises are hard to be fulfilled.
We all remember that in Copenhagen, developed countries promised to provide US$100 billion a year by 2020 [to poorer countries]. However, that is only a goal on paper. Recently, the Green Climate Fund under the UNFCCC began to raise money for operations ahead of the Lima talks. Their goal is to raise US$10 billion, and the developed countries have pledged an amount of US$9.3 billion. However, $10 billion is very far from $100 billion, and the money will only used to start the organization's operations. Climate change is a pressing threat to island countries, the least developed countries and African countries, which are in urgent need of concrete aid and support. China, a developing country which itself faces the challenges of promoting economic growth, alleviating poverty, improving people's wellbeing and protecting the environment, is still willing to lend a hand to those countries because we identify with how they are suffering from climate change. At the U.N. Climate Summit in September, the special envoy of President Xi Jinping Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli declared China would double its investment in the South-South Cooperation fund. He proposed establishing the fund to address climate change and announced that China would provide US$6million to the U.N. for carrying out activities related to South-South Cooperation. China will provide unconditional aid to cope with the climate change to other countries within the framework of South-South Cooperation.
President Xi also pledged to help and support developing island countries in coping with climate change when he attended the G20 summit and held meetings with the leaders of Pacific island countries. He proposed to establish the South-South Cooperation fund to address climate change and provide concrete aid to developing countries, especially island countries. We have strengthened our work on South-South Cooperation, as Vice Minister Xie mentioned, and we have invested a total of 270 million yuan in South-South Cooperation, which will continue to increase. Xie Zhenhua: The goals for 2020 and 2030 are set in accordance with domestic and international situations, based particularly on the domestic economic, social and environmental conditions, as well as our measures to transform our production model and adjust economic structures. President Xi said that we are not forced to do it. We should do it well because it is our own will. Therefore, the goals align with China's conditions, its current development phase, the technologies we possess and our capabilities. And we will try our best to realize them. There are transitions between the goals. Each goal will be realized through respective targets, policies, measures and input mapped out in a five-year plan. The plans have both long-term targets and mid-term programs, and the plans will be further divided into annual targets, specifying supportive measures, policies and investments for each year. Therefore, realizing the goals is guaranteed by the policies and laws. That's certain.
The goals set for 2030 are based on those for 2020. I'd like to explain a little bit about the global goal. When we discuss the 2030 goal, we must first see whether each country's promises for 2020 have been fulfilled. Therefore, we clearly call for establishing political mutual trust. What is political mutual trust? That means that the consensus reached should be carried out by all countries and promises should be kept. Otherwise, what trust can we have? So at the Lima talks, we hope that, in addition to the plans for after 2020, the initiatives from the Bali Road Map and the commitments made by each country will be realized. Only in that way can we increase mutual trust, set up a foundation for cooperation and become more confident about the goals for after 2020.
ICV:
How can China curb pollution without harming economic growth?
Xie Zhenhua:
The measures we have taken to cope with climate change are sometimes in conflict with economic growth, but not always. If we stick to the extensive production model without adjusting unsound structures, the economy will grow at the expense of environmental deterioration and higher CO2 emissions. Our goal should be sustainable and should integrate economic, social and environmental development. When tackling climate change, we must maintain economic growth. Growth is essential to both developed and underdeveloped countries. Without economic growth, there will be no progress in employment and people's livelihood. None shall be missed in development, but how to develop? We should adopt green, low-carbon methods to achieve sustainable development. Only in this way can we realize our coordinated goals. China has made some detours in this area and suffered from serious environmental problems. Therefore, we must stick to sustainable development. At the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee vowed to take on green, low-carbon and circular development. The ultimate goal is to tackle climate change while promoting economic development, improving people's livelihoods and protecting the environment. This is our goal. All our targets, policies and measures are developed to achieve it, and we have the confidence and determination to achieve it. Thank you.
Nanfang Daily:
I noticed that, according to the report, our framework draft on climate change law has been completed. I would like to ask if there is any timetable for its promulgation.
Su Wei:
The legislation on climate change is also something we have been working on in recent years. This is in accordance with the clear requirements of the National People's Congress and the State Council. The National Development and Reform Commission has taken the lead in organizing the climate change legislation, and we have organized a leading group and a drafting group. We have gone through the early stage of investigating the international situation and related legal activity, and after widely soliciting opinions from the public and from within the department, we have reached the drafting stage for the proposed legislation. In fact, we hope that relevant procedures to examine and approve the draft law will start as soon as possible. Responding to climate change necessitates legislation to promote any action program, and this must be established in accordance with legal requirements. So we hope to move forward as soon as possible. However, the legislation involves many aspects, such as whether it will encompass a full or limited range of measures. It also involves coordination with other legal processes. Therefore, it is difficult for us to give a very clear timetable at this stage. But we are striving to get things moving, and we hope to be able to make considerable progress in one or two years.
Hu Kaihong:
That's all for today's press conference. Thank you, Vice Minister Xie. Thank you, everybody.
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