China
is working to reach its emissions peak before 2030 deadline, analyst
says
Qi
Ye, director of public policy centre in Beijing, says China is
showing ‘global leadership’ on climate change and it will look to
clean energy technologies
Oliver Milman
Tuesday 6 October
2015 06.34 BST
China may aim for an
earlier greenhouse gas emissions peak before its 2030 deadline,
putting a greater onus on Australia to work with its key trading
partner on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, says a leading
Chinese analyst.
Qi Ye, director of
the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing, said that
Chinese policymakers were striving to ensure emissions peaked ahead
of a schedule agreed in a joint climate deal with the US earlier this
year.
“China hopes to
peak as early as possible because it understands it’s in the
national interest and to the benefit of the people in terms of health
considerations,” Qi told Guardian Australia. Urban smogs
contributed to an estimated 670,000 deaths in 2012.
“A 2030 peak is
very ambitious, it’s very challenging,” said Qi. “I think most
people underestimate how challenging that is. Everyone wants China to
have an earlier peak but no one wants it more than China itself.”
China will introduce
a national emissions trading scheme in 2017 and will try to ensure
its emissions peak even as 82 million of its people live on less than
$1 a day.
Australia’s
environment minister, Greg Hunt, has compared Australia’s emissions
reduction target favourably with China’s. He said last week that
China was “a country with up to a 150% increase in emissions”
between 2005 and 2030.
But Qi said China
was showing “global leadership” on climate change and that
Australia would have to forge a new export relationship with China as
the economic giant’s coal imports, which have slumped this year,
begin to slow.
“There will
probably still be a high level of coal consumption but we will not
see any significant increase in demand for coal in the Chinese
economy,” Qi said.
“There’s huge
potential in clean energy research, development and deployment
between China and Australia. A quarter of all new renewable
investment in the world is coming from China, we are talking about a
$1.8tn investment. China would be very happy to have the abundant
clean energy resources Australia has.
“In the past we
thought it was a cost to address climate change. Then we realised not
addressing it will cost us more. By developing clean energy
technologies, we bring more economic opportunities. Every country
should look at this with fresh eyes and seize the opportunity rather
than just talk about the cost of it.”
Meanwhile, the
number of large businesses joining a call for a global carbon pricing
market has reached 4,000 – most notably oil giant Royal Dutch
Shell, the World Bank says.
“Carbon pricing is
an efficient, necessary way of reducing emissions,” said Vikram
Widge, head of climate and carbon finance at the World Bank’s
climate change group.
“The momentum
behind it is huge. It’s a critical way to reach our goals but it
isn’t sufficient. We have to build upon it.”
Widge said
Australia, which scrapped its carbon price last year, would need to
find an alternative system to meet its goal of a 26% to 28% reduction
in emissions by 2030, based on 2005 levels.
“Australia has
made a commitment and it will need to find a way to meet that target.
If it chooses to do it without a carbon pricing it will have to find
another way.”
The Coalition’s
Direct Action climate policy has set aside $2.55bn to fund emissions
reduction from businesses that wish to do so, although much of the
reduction will depend on how the government treats firms that do not
apply for the grants and maintain, or increase, their emissions.
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