The year 2007 will go down in history as the year that climate
change took center stage in almost every major development forum
around the world. As noted by the United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, climate change has become the defining issue of our
time, set to transform the very way we live and the way our
economies are structured.
In the past two weeks, world leaders gathered for the summit in
Bali where initial negotiations on a new international climate
agenda have recently concluded. What the world needs is a
breakthrough: a comprehensive climate change agreement that all
nations can embrace. We must set an agenda - a roadmap to a better
future, accompanied by a tight time-line that reaches a deal by
2009.
World leaders, experts and civil society representatives met in
Bali to start discussing a "post-Kyoto" framework for future
emission reduction, which would take effect in 2012 when Kyoto
expires. The second major point of discussion was on technology
transfer - with calls for new arrangements to help support the
proposed shift to a low carbon world economy.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the
scientific body that recently shared the Nobel peace prize, if no
action is taken on reducing emissions in the near future, the
planet's temperature could rise by 4.5 C or more.
While such figures may not seem that much, consider this: the
Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average and could
lead to rapid melting of large ice sheets including the massive ice
sheets which overlay much of Greenland. The risk of these sheets
slipping into the ocean by century's end is real, and would utterly
transform the world we know today.
The world ecosystems act in a non-linear manner, and there is
increasing concern that we are nearing a tipping point, when rapid
changes could begin to take shape at an accelerated rate.
Of particular importance are the findings of the IPCC, and
UNDP's global 2007/2008 Human Development Report, that the poor,
who have the lightest carbon footprint and bear little
responsibility for the ecological debt borne by the planet, are the
most vulnerable and will be hit the hardest by global warming
These are very alarming facts, but we must not miss their
optimistic bottom line: We can turn the tide of global warming - in
ways that are both affordable and promote prosperity.
Much is made of the fact that China is poised to surpass the
United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in
a decade.
Less well known, however, are its increasing efforts to confront
environmental challenges. China will invest $10 billion in
renewable energy this year alone, second only to Germany. At a
recent summit of East Asian leaders in Singapore, Premier Wen
Jiabao pledged to reduce energy consumption (per unit of GDP) by 20
percent over five years - not so far removed, in spirit, from
Europe's commitment to a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions by 2020.
In China, the year 2007 saw the launch of China's first-ever
National Climate Change Program. The recently issued national
climate change policies and the momentum of the Bali conference now
provide a major opportunity for the country. For example, China is
already a world leader in solar and wind power. With the right
incentive framework and an expansion of "green investment" into
China, the future may see China producing technologies that help
the world not only China, to meet its green technology needs.
What is needed now is to quickly scale up financing, technology
transfer and public-private partnerships to get the job done.
South-South cooperation is therefore critical. China, India and
other emerging economies can together find solutions.
There are already good cases of local entrepreneurs taking the
lead to innovate and bring to the market new solutions. The
challenge now is to identify these models, scale up these
activities and expand their reach into the market.
This is very much the role of the United Nations. As the UN
moves ahead toward the follow-up from Bali, the UN family in China
is also working closely with the government and our private and
civil society partners to identify China specific challenges to
mitigation and adaptation, and new technologies and financing to
address these issues.
The momentum from Bali holds a great opportunity for the future.
China's ability over the next several years to innovate and show
leadership on climate change can become a great source of economic
opportunity, and can help find global solutions to our common
challenges.
Simple things can make a big difference if done at scale.
Shifting from regular lighting to energy efficient lighting or from
regular refrigerators and air conditioners to energy efficient ones
- these can make a huge impact.
The UN is pleased to have worked over the past decade in China
on such matters and is now in the process of supporting further
activities like these with our partners at National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC), the State Environment Protection
Administration (SEPA) and various local partners. Of particular
importance is the strong role we see for the private sector, both
Chinese and international.
As a follow-up to Bali, and to support these efforts in the
future, the United Nations in China will soon launch with key
government partners a new UN-China Climate Change Partnership
Framework (CCPF).
This will be a landmark partnership between nine UN agencies and
about a dozen ministries and private sector partners to bring to
bear the best knowledge and technologies to the table.
One important part of our work will be to bring together global
partners to identify post-Kyoto strategies and solutions. There is
a wealth of practical solutions out there that needs to be piloted
and then scaled up where possible.
Technology will be key. There are new cutting-edge "green
technologies" that can be applied to these challenges, new
approaches and best practices that the UN can share with China.
Bringing knowledge and new technology solutions stand as core
elements of our new UN Climate Change Partnership Framework
initiative.
The UN will bring together leaders and innovators in this field
to share knowledge, within China and between China and other
emerging economies, and explore practical solutions in the form of
new green investment mechanisms and new green technology transfer
mechanisms.
The program will explore steps towards a lower-carbon economy,
ways to mainstream climate change into sustainable production and
consumption models, and how to innovate energy use through
practical solutions like green lighting and distributed localized
energy production.
We also have to engage citizens on these issues through expanded
awareness raising activities. UNDP was pleased to partner in July
with Al Gore's Live Earth concert in Shanghai to bring attention to
climate change issues.
We are happy to now be launching a series of awareness raising
activities with NDRC, SEPA and local partners to bring to citizens
across the country ways in which they can make a real difference in
their daily lives. There is a growing sense that citizens can
themselves make a difference and that they have a strong role to
play.
The author is the United Nations resident
coordinator and UNDP resident representative in
China.
(China Daily December 20, 2007)
