Many countries are looking to China for experience in tackling climate change, and "the decisions made in China have big implications for other countries", said experts during a launch event of climate change-related reports in Beijing on Wednesday.

A launch event of two Lancet reports on climate change is held in Beijing on Oct. 28. [Photo by Zhang Lulu/China.org.cn]

China and the United States are the world's two largest carbon emitters, accounting for about 45 percent of the world's total carbon emission. Thus the moves of the two giants are under the world's intense scrutiny.

Sir Andy Haines, chair of the Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, which issued one of the two reports -- focusing on planetary health, hailed the influence of China in addressing climate change in recent years. "Don't underestimate the importance of the Chinese leadership or the influence China has in the world -- many countries are looking to China, they are seeing some really important changes that are happening here." The professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine made the remarks when attending the launch event of the Chinese language version of two Lancet special reports on climate change. The other report is on health and climate change. The English versions were originally released in July.

Of the latest "important changes" China made is the decision to establish a nationwide cap-and-trade system which will help contain the country's carbon emissions. The decision was announced during Chinese President Xi's high-profile visit to the United States in September. He also pledged 20-billion-yuan (about US$3billion) to set up a China South-South Climate Cooperation Fund to help developing countries cope with changes in the climate.

The launch event on Oct. 28 came one day before the conclusion of the 5th plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, a key meeting which discusses the country's 13th Five-Year Plan, a major blueprint charting the course of the country from 2016 to 2020.

Noting the timing, Li Gao, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Climate Change of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that "building an ecological civilization will be one of the key words and will be fully addressed in the 13th Five-Year Plan." "Ecological civilization" is a word coined in China to describe the green and sustainable environment that the country is keen to build.

This idea coincides with the term "planetary health," highlighted by the Lancet reports, which refers to "the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends."

Anthony Capon, director of the International Institute for Global Health at the United Nations University, observed the resonance of the "ecological civilization" and "planetary health" when thinking in the context of human relations with nature. "Our way of life collectively is an underlying cause of climate change and environmental change, and is behind many of the contemporary health problems…If we transition to sustainable ways of living, as in the idea of the 'eco-civilization' here in China, then that will bring benefits for the health of people and the health of planetary systems," he said.

Tackling climate change 'greatest opportunity' for human health

One central and quite refreshing message of the reports is that combating climate change can be "the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century." A limited amount of money invested in the adaptation to climate change will lead to huge benefits in health, the reports argued.

Sir Andy Haines lists a set of methods that will help cut carbon emissions as well as improve public health. Take the use of clean energy for example. Currently fossil fuel accounts for a major part of the world's energy consumption, contributing to both climate change and air pollution. Research conducted by the World Health Organization found that 3.7 million deaths occur every year due to outdoor pollution, and in China the number is between 1.2 million or 1.6 million according to different estimations. Thus, "moving towards clean energy has the potential to prevent those deaths," he said.

But all is not rosy. The Lancet reports also warn that the inaction or inability to deal with climate change will "undermine the last half century of gains in development and global health."

Gong Peng, co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change and director of the Center for Earth Science System of China's Tsinghua University, argued that climate change will lead to direct effects such as storms, droughts, floods and heatwaves, and indirect impacts including air pollution and ecological changes, both of which will bring forth an array of health impacts like cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, allergies and so on. He argued that women, children and the poor will be the most affected by changes in the climate.

The launch event on Wednesday came a week after a United Nations climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, which is precursory to the COP 21, or the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference later to be held in Paris, France. Countries at the Bonn meeting were divided on their due responsibilities in solving climate issues, raising concerns about the success of the Paris conference. As the reports rightly note, "achieving a global economy not based on fossil fuels and securing the public health benefits it offers is no longer primarily a technical or economic question -- it is now a political one."