VII. Actively Engaging in International Negotiations

Since 2014, China has been extensively involved in global climate governance, kept actively participating in international negotiations to address climate change, strengthened multi-level consultations and dialogues with other countries in the field of climate change, and made positive contributions to promoting the Paris Conference to reach agreement and establishing an equitable, justified and win-win post-2020 global climate change arrangement.

(I) Proactive Participation in International Negotiations under the UNFCCC

China firmly upholds the principles and framework of the UNFCCC, adheres to the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and abides by the multilateral rules of openness and transparency, inclusiveness to improve the ability, party-driven and consensus.

In December 2014, the Chinese official delegation attended the UN climate change conference in Lima, participated in the negotiations actively and constructively, promoted the consensus of different parties, and introduced China's policies and actions to address climate change, and made great contributions to the success of the conference. In 2015, the Chinese government fully attended the negotiation meetings under the UNFCCC and strengthened communications and exchange with all parties, with a view to working with all parties to promote the Paris Conference to reach agreement and establishing an equitable, justified and win-win post-2020 global climate arrangement.

On June 30, 2015, the Chinese government submitted to the Secretariat of the UNFCCC its INDC: "Enhanced Actions on Climate Change: China's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions". It clearly proposed to achieve the peaking of carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% in 2030, to lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2030 by 60% to 65% from the 2005 level, increase the forest stock volume by around 4.5 billion cubic meters on the 2005 level, and to improve the ability to adapt to climate change in a comprehensive manner. Besides, it explained in a systematic manner the paths and policy measures to achieve these objectives, which fully reflected the transparency of China's enhanced actions and made positive contributions to raising the confidence of all parties in multilateral processes and promoting the Paris Conference to reach substantial results as scheduled.

(II) Extensive Participation in Related International Progress

Actively participating in international processes related to climate change negotiations. Chinese leaders actively participated in multilateral diplomatic activities, delivered many important speeches, and reached consensus with the heads of other states, which promoted the multilateral processes. In September 2014, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, as a special envoy of President Xi Jinping, attended the UN Climate Summit in New York, and delivered an important speech, which introduced China's targets of addressing climate change and initiatives to increase financial support for South-South cooperation for tackling climate change, and also made a political statement on the actions to address climate change after 2020. China was actively involved in the preparation of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports and future planning work, completed the interpretation and publicity of IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, and increased its own science and technology capacity and voice in international governance.

Strengthening consultations and dialogues with other countries. China made efforts to strengthen the communication and coordination with the BASIC countries and the Like-Minded Developing Countries, maintained the unity and common interests of developing countries, organized or attended the ministerial conferences of BASIC countries, hosted the Beijing Conference of "Like-Minded Developing Countries and actively attended each coordination conferences of "Like-Minded Developing Countries". It continued to strengthen communications and coordination with the small island states, the least developed countries and the African Countries, conducted joint research with developing countries, and actively safeguarded the interests of developing countries. It continued to strengthen the communication with developed countries to enhance understanding and expand consensus, and continued to hold ministerial and working-level dialogues and consultations on climate change with the US, European Union, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Germany and other countries to promote dialogues and communications on expert levels. In addition, it put into practice the consensus reached by the leaders of China and France, establish the China-France consultation mechanism on climate change, strengthened the dialogue and communication with the French presidency of the Paris Conference, so as to prepare and pave the way for the Paris Conference and jointly ensure the success of the conference on the basis of openness and transparency, inclusiveness, and consensus. It also strengthened the communication with foreign embassies, media and NGOs.

Proactive participation in climate change conferences and processes outside the UNFCCC. NDRC and relevant departments participated in the informal consultations on outcomes of Paris Conference, the Petersburg Dialogue, the Key Economies Forum on Climate Change and Energy, the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on climate change; every negotiation meeting and other informal consultations would be taken as an opportunity to reinforce dialogues and consultations with other parties. The Chinese government attended the conferences of Montreal Protocol, International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization, offered suggestions, participated in related consultations and negotiations, and participated in the negotiations beyond the UNFCCC. China continued to be actively involved in and payed close attention to East Asia Low Carbon Growth Partnership Program, Global Alliance for Clean Cook stoves, Global Agricultural GHGs Research Alliance, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and other mechanisms outside of UNFCCC; it also actively participated in the discussions on climate change issues under the framework of G20, APEC, East Asia Summit, UNCTAD Conference and WTO.

(III) China's Basic Position on the Paris 2015 UN Climate Change Conference

Climate change is a common challenge facing humanity, and requires the joint efforts of each country. As a milestone in global climate governance, Paris Conference will adopt the agreement to strengthen actions on climate change after 2020. China is willing to work actively and constructively with all parties to promote negotiating process under the principles of "common but differentiated responsibilities", equity and respective capabilities so as to ensure to reach agreement on the Paris Conference in 2015 and build an equitable and justified international climate arrangement.

The 2015 agreement should be based on UNFCCC and the its Kyoto Protocol, fully in accordance with the principles, provisions and frameworks of the UNFCCC, respect the differentiation between developed and developing countries in historical responsibilities, national circumstance, stages of development and capabilities, reflect all elements including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity building and transparency, and strengthen the full, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC after 2020. The developed countries should earnestly fulfill their commitments to emissions reduction as well as financial and technical support by 2020, and continue to provide support for developing countries after 2020, thus laying the foundation of mutual trust for the success of the Paris Conference. China will offer its full support to the French presidency in organizing the Paris Conference.

Conclusions

As the world's largest developing country, China has a per capita GDP equivalent to only 70% of the global average. It has not yet completed industrialization and urbanization process, and is faced with enormous pressures from developing economy, improving people's livelihood, protecting environment and addressing climate change. The problem of uncoordinated, unbalanced and unsustainable development still persists, rendering it imminent to change the traditional extensive mode of development. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, to address climate change is not only an inherent requirement of sustainable development in China, but also the international obligation of a responsible large country; it is not that someone else forces us to do it, but we should do it voluntarily.

It is long way to go to address climate change and demands the persistent efforts of the whole society. The 13th Five-Year-Plan period is not only a crucial period for building a comprehensive well-off Chinese society, but a period of strategic opportunity to vigorously promote the construction of ecological civilization and promote the green and low-carbon development. Based on a comprehensive summary of the achievements made in addressing climate change during the 12th Five-Year-Plan period, the Chinese government will study and set up the targets and tasks to address climate change for the 13th Five-Year-Plan period, and ensures the realization of GHG emissions controlling targets in 2020, thereby laying a solid foundation for achieving an emission peak in around 2030. It will accelerate the green low-carbon transformation of the whole society, drive the upgrading of development patterns, actively advance international negotiations on climate change, and continue to promote multilateral and bilateral dialogues and exchanges as well as pragmatic cooperation in climate change, with a goal to make new and significant contributions to addressing global climate change in the future.

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