China’s new Nationally Determined Contributions embody pragmatism and responsibility

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Over the past decade, China has displayed a more proactive and influential role in global climate governance - a fact recognized by the international community. At Wednesday's UN climate summit, China announced its new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), declaring that by 2035 China will reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent from peak levels.

China's NDCs have drawn wide attention. For example, the BBC ran a headline saying, "China makes landmark pledge to cut its climate emissions," using it as a contrast with US inaction. Yet some critics say China's targets are "conservative." In fact, the goals China has proposed reflect not only sincerity, but also pragmatism - striking a careful balance between the real conditions of a developing country and its global responsibilities.

Compared with the first two sets of NDCs submitted in 2015 and 2020, the new round of targets goes further. Li Zhiqing, a professor specializing in environmental economics and China's economy at Fudan University, told the Global Times that this is the first time the target covers economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions rather than being limited to carbon dioxide emissions. This shows that China's carbon-emissions governance is expanding from a single sector to the entire economy - moving beyond a focus on the production or manufacturing side to encompass both production and consumption across all industries in the national economy.

Jia Weilie, a professor at the Institute for Sustainability of Huzhou University and a researcher at the Budapest Centre for Long-term Sustainability, said that the 7 percent to 10 percent emission-reduction target builds on the first two NDCs while taking China's development realities into account, and it is a highly responsible goal. He further explained that China's consistent sense of responsibility is evident in its systemic breakthroughs in green technologies. For example, it has already surpassed its 2030 nationally determined contributions targets ahead of schedule for wind and solar power capacity, as well as forest stock volume. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's wind and solar power products have cumulatively helped reduce carbon emissions in other countries by approximately 4.1 billion metric tons. Compared with certain countries that withdrew from the Paris Agreement or have publicly called climate change a "hoax" at the United Nations, China has consistently demonstrated the duty and commitment it ought to bear.

Despite positive progress, China's goal of reducing carbon emissions intensity by the largest margin globally and transitioning from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality in the shortest time frame in history remains exceedingly arduous. To achieve its dual-carbon goals, China is vigorously developing, producing, and adopting green technologies - and in many fields are beginning to lead globally.

However, some Western media and politicians repeatedly hype the narrative that tackling climate change "is all up to China and India," urging China to set even more aggressive targets. Such demands are unreasonable. This narrative is, in essence, an attempt to force developing countries to shoulder responsibility beyond what is reasonable. It ignores the root causes of climate change - not just emissions from emerging developing countries, but to a far greater extent, the historic cumulative emissions from developed countries since the Industrial Revolution. In responding to climate change, the actions of the US and other Western nations have been far from sufficient.

For China, achieving its NDCs requires not only arduous domestic effort but also an open and favorable international environment. China has always demonstrated its sense of responsibility through real deeds, and will continue to uphold the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity as it works with other countries to advance global climate governance.

来源：人民网
编辑：胡烨晨
审核：郑颖、齐美煜
监制：张晶