The 17th East Asian Seminar on the United Nations System

Towards East Asian LeadershipinStrengthening Multilateralism in an Increasingly
Turbulent World
II. Planetary Boundaries
4. Implementing Paris Accord
Implementing the Paris Accord in China：Progress, Challenges, andOpportunities

Xi JIN
Assistant professor
School of International Studies
Renmin University
xijin@ruc.edu.cn

Kitakyushu International Conference Center
11 November 2017

Introduction
Climate change poses a tremendous and urgent threat to all human societies on the earth and thus requires thewidest cooperation across the world. The Paris Accord represents one of the most recent joint efforts of theinternational community in addressing such issues. The agreement, which was adopted at the end of 2015,
and entered into force in November 2016, requires all its signatories to be “ambitious”, and to submit
concrete action plans to combat global warming. It is considered a milestone of the UNFCCC process that set
the future framework for international cooperation on climate change.
China, as the world’s largest economy and the biggest greenhouse gas emitter, holds great responsiblity
in this battle against climate change. As a matter of fact, China had done a lot of constructive preparations
that ensured the conclustion of an agreement and the final success of the Paris Conference. President Xi
Jinping perosanlly attended the conference, in which he gave a keynote speach that elaborated China’s plans
for reducing GHG emissions. It indicated China’s decisive determination to actively participate in global
climate governance, and to construct an equitable, rational, cooperative and win-win global climate
governance system post 2020. Since then, China has been working progressively to push forward theenforcement and effective implementation of the Paris Accord, including, inter alia, carrying out low-carbon
pilots across the country, strengthening laws and regulations on climate change and environment pollution,enhancing related strategic research, providing stronger scientific and technological support, and actively
participating international negotiations and multilateral cooperation. All in all, tackling climate changepresents a significant opportunity for China to transform its economic development mode. However, while
doing so, the Chinese government also faces many difficulites. This paper intends to introduce some of the
major progress China has made so far in implementing the Paris Accord. It also discusses the challenges andopportunities lying before China on taking the agreement into practice.

Progress
Even prior to the Paris Conference, the Chinese government had submitted the UN in June its Intended
Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), which clarified China’s determination to take enhanced
actions to tackle climate change, and reassured its firm commitment to green and low-carbon development.
Since then, remarkable accomplishments have been achieved in multiple regards:

Strategic Planning and Institutional Constructiona) Administrative Planning
In October 2016, the State Council issued the Work Plan for Controlling GHG Emissions during theth

13 FYP Period, stipulating that all local governments should incorporate a substantial reduction in GHG
emissions into their respective policy agenda and take concrete measures to fulfill this goal. Until June 2017,
there are 18 provinces that have come up with their own 13th FYPs. The Work Plan also demands reinforcing
1the performance assessment and accountability system for controlling GHG emissions at the provincial level.
It means that whether have fulfilled the goal will become the main basis for future appointments within thecadre system. Accordingly, the NDRC issued the specific measures of assessment for the 13th FYP, andcarried out the evaluation for the year of 2016 in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). All
local governments, in light of their respective annual targets, conducted self-assessments of the progress that
had been made for reducing carbon intensity.
Between late 2016 and early 2017, the NDRC and the NEA jointly issued a series of documents thatprovide guiding principles for the transformation and development of China’s energy industry, including theStrategy for Energy Production and Consumption Revolution (2016-2030), the 13th FYP of Energy
Development, the 13th FYP of Renewable Energy Development, to just name a few. Other major ministries
and administrations have also made their respective plan or program to tackle climate change.

b) Legal and Regulatory Reform
Since 2011, a leading group of legislators and experts organized by the NDRC have been conducting
various researches on the legislation of the Climate Change Law and the Regulation on the Management of
Carbon Emission Trading. During the process of drafting, stakeholders were widely consulted and theirconcerns were well taken into consideration. Both laws were included in the 2016 State Council Legislative
Work Plan, which was released in April 2016. The Climate Change Law was subsumed within the categoryof “research projects” and therefore is still under investigation. However, the Work Plan for Controlling
GHG Emissions specified the need to accelerate the legislation process. On 31 October 2017, in the press
release regarding the 2017 China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, Li Gao, leader ofthe Department of Climate Change of the NDRC, indicated that they were actively working with the LAO toaccelerate the deliberation of the interim Regulation by the State Council.
At the local level, Fujian province in September 2016 published its interim regulation on carbon
emission trading. The cities of Shijiazhuang and Nanchang, roughly about the same time, also adopted andimplemented their respective regulations on climate change and low-carbon development.

c) Market Mechnism Construction
China attempts to introduce a market mechanism to encourage the enterprises’ enthusiasm for lowering
GHG emissions. The NDRC in 2011 selected seven provinces and cities, i.e. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai,Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen, to carry out carbon emission trading pilots. Since the pilots
were activated, the transaction scale has been steadily increasing. As of September 2017, they haveaccumulatively completed the trading of quota of around 197 Mt CO2e, with a trading volume up to RMB 4.5
billion. Based on the success achieved by the pilots, the NDRC is finalizing the preparitory work and is readyto lauch a unitary national carbon emission trading market. The national program was originally set to launchin the first half of 2017. However, due to some problems with unreliable data and regulations, China
probably needs to delay its launch until early 2018.

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

Low-Carbon Developmenta) Industrial Restructuring
China aims to reduce cabon intensity by ajusting and optimizing its industrial structure. Starting from2016, the State Council has introduced a number of policies to first facilitate eliminating the overcapacity inhigh-energy consumption enterprises, and secondly to promote strategic emerging industries, such as thegreen-car industry and information industry. For instance, in principle there will be no approval for new coalmine projects within a 3-year period. And a renewed subsidy program was put into effect from 2017 tocontinue to boost the nation’s green auto industry and mitigate vehicle emissions. Moreover, this year’s
Report on the Work of the Government reasserted the importance to carry forward the Internet Plus Action
Plan, in order to further increase the integration of informatization and industrialization.
Meanwhile, China places high value on the development of service industry. In 2016, the added value ofservice industry to national GDP was 58.2%, witnessing an increase by 5.3% than that of last year. At thevery beginning of 2017, the MOC issued a plan to boost the proportion of consumer services and toformulate by the year of 2020 a high-quality, secure, convenient, and green service system for both urban andrural residents of China.

b) Energy Revolution
There is indeed a grand energy revolution going on in China, which involves conserving energy,
optimizing energy structure and enhancing energy efficiency. In 2016, the NEA specified the upper limit ofaggregate energy consumption for the year. Accordingly, the NDRC allocated energy conservation targets toprovincial governments and conducted an assessment of target fulfillment in 2017. The results, like those ofcontrolling GHG emissions mentioned above, will be an important reference for evaluating governmental
officials’ performance. The Chinese government is also working actively in promoting energy conservationin various areas, such as in construction industry, transportation and public institutions.
China continues to substantially reduce the proportion of coal consumption. The Air Pollution
Prevention and Control Action Plan, which was released in September 2013, requires that the top 10 cities
with the worst air quality must maintain negative growth in yearly total coal consumption. Since 2016, theBeijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has started green transformation of the residential heating system to further
decrease coal consumption. The total coal consumption was 3.78 Gton, dropping by 4.7% than that of 2015.
In order to maintain economic growth, China is in need of finding alternative resources, and therefore has
improved the utilization scale of natural gas and non-fossil fuels, including hydro, nuclear, wind and solar
power. In 2016, the ratio of natural gas accounted for 6.4% in the overall energy consumption, while thepower generation of renewable energy occupied 36.6% of China’s total power generation.
Last year, China expanded resource tax coverage to enforce efficient utilization of resources. It meansthat using fuels with poor quality would be less likely in the future. The NDRC, in association with otherrelevant institutions, has further systematized the energy efficiency standards. Moreover, the government
carried on the project of Energy Efficiency Leaders by releasing catalogs of energy-efficient products.
3c) Low-Carbon Pilots
China has been carrying on the pilots of low-carbon provinces and cities, communities and industrial
parks. These pilots have provided valuable experiences that later can be reproduced across the country. As of
July 2017, the number of pilot provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) has reached 87, while thenumber of pilot communities has exceeded 400, spread in 27 provinces. So far 51 industrial parks haveentered into the pilot project. They have been able to decrease energy consumption and carbon emission
while maintaining rapid economic growth, thus providing added values to carbon management. Furthermore,some provinces like Shaanxi and Guangdong have initiated near-zero emission demonstration projects, ofwhich the number will be extended to 50 by 2020, according to Tian Chuan, a senior official of the NDRC.

Capacity Buildinga) Scientific Research and Technological Support
On 30 September 2016, the Third National Climate Change Expert Committee was established to serve
as a national think tank on policy making regarding climate change. In the same year, the MOST supported aseries of fundamental scientific research on climate change, including the National Key Scientific Research
Program on Global Change and the Research on Urgent and Important Issues of Climate Change after theParis Conference.
The NDRC released two batches of the Catalogue of Key National Promoted Low-Carbon Technologies
this year to accelerate the promotion and application of low-carbon technologies. The MOST, the MEP and
the CMA jointly issued the Special Plan of Technology Innovation on Climate Change during the 13th FYP
Period, in order to encourage technology innovation.

b) Education, Publicity and Personnel Training
The MOE has encouraged colleges and universities to set up majors concerning climate change toaccelerate the cultivation of qualified scientists, technicians and other experts. The newly established
China-UK Low Carbon College exemplifies one of such efforts. By the end of 2016, China has built 22
majors related to atmospheric sciences, and over 42 majors related to energy saving and environmental
protection.
In the year of 2016 and 2017, the NDRC and relevant ministries continue to hold a series of national
low-carbon activities that are open to the public. Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, CCTV and othermainstream media constantly report the important news and major events such as the UN Climate Change
Conferences and negotiations. New media, like Weibo, Wechat are also utilized to spread news or scientificknowledge to the wide public on relevant topics. All these publicity activities have contributed to improving
public awareness of energy conservation, environmental protection and low-carbon development.
Several ministries and departments have organized training activities on climate change and emergency
response to improve the overall working capabilities of their employees and to educate the public. For
instance, the NGOA has trained over 9,000 people all over the country on energy-saving and management.
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Merely in Beijing, the MCA has offered training sessions to over 800 people on disaster relief. The CMA
also provides free courses and training regarding climate change and ecological civilization.

c) Public Mobilization
With the development of relevant education, training and publicity work, the public has proactively
engaged in activities combating climate change. Many people have chosen to live a low-carbon lifestyle. For
example, bike sharing and car rental are booming in today’s China. International and national NGOs like theWWF, the Low Carbon Alliance, and the China Youth Climate Action Network have also played importantroles in mobilizing public support to fight climate change.

International Cooperationa) Cooperation with Developed Countries
China continues to have dialogues and exchanges with developed countries. It has held bilateral
cooperative meetings on climate change with the US, the EU, South Korea, Russia, Germany, France,
Australia, and New Zealand and started cooperation in various areas including carbon market, energy
efficiency and climate change adaptation. This year the NDRC also managed to sign an arrangement on
climate change cooperation with the MFAT of New Zealand.

b) South-South Collaboration
The Chinese government places high value on the South-South cooperation in addressing climatechange. It has offered financial support and aids of material and equipment to many developing countries inAfrica, Latin America, and South Pacific areas. China also seeks to assist these countries regarding their
participation in international climate change negotiations, policy planning and personnel training. Until 2017,
the MOC has aided more than 70 developing countries in total.

c) Cooperation under Multilateral Framework
In 2016, China actively participated in the negotiation meetings under the UNFCCC and largely
contributed to the final success of putting the Paris Accord into enforcement. The Chinese delegation also
attended that year’s UN climate change conference held in Marrakech, where the representatives proposed
China’s standpoints on various issues, including intended contributions, adaption to climate change,transparency and so on. For the upcoming Bonn conference on 6 November, China is also well prepared topresent its accomplishments and to propose more ambitious goals.
Apart from the UN conferences, Chinese delegations also actively participate in the cooperation at othermultilateral platforms, such as the G20, the APEC and the BRICS, the World Economic Forum. Early in
2017, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech in Davos, where he highlighted that all signatories of
the Paris Agreement should stick to it instead of just walking away irresponsibly. With the One Belt and One
Road initiatives already being lauched, China should also take full advantage of the opportunities provided
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by this multilateral framework.

Challenges
According to its INDCs, China pledges to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and strive to achieve it as soon
as possible, reduce the emission of CO2 per unit of GDP by 60%~65% from the 2005 level, increase theshare of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to approximately 20%, and increase forest stock byapproximately 4.5 billion m3 against the 2005 level. Although China has so far made much progres as
illurstrated above, its implementation of the Paris Accord is not without challenges.
First, China is under tremendous pressure to deliver the 2030 commitment. China is experiencing
accelerated industrialization and urbanization. It is predicted that at least for a long period of time there will
be an increasing demand for energy consumption, especially in the areas of buildings and transportation.
Meanwhile, there is no doubt that China is facing a lot of difficulties in dealing with the overcapacity of thein traditional industries. China’s economy is entering into a “new normal”, where its growth shifts from avery high speed toward a medium-to-high basis, focusing more on better quality and industrial
transformation. The demand of iron, steel, cement and other high energy-consuming products and raw
materials will decrease, which will contribute to controlling the GHG emissions. Nevertheless, one cannot
risk ignoring that China might fall into the so-called “Middle Income Trap”, due to a slowdown in its
economic growth. If this were to happen, it would bring a series of economic and social problems.
Secondly, China faces serious challenges in optimizing and upgrading its energy structure. China
has become the largest energy consumer in the world. However, heavy coal reliance characterizes China’s
resource endowment. Coal consumption in 2016 still accounted for over 60% of its total energy consumption.
Changing the coal-dominant energy mix is not going to be easy and cannot be realized overnight. While atthe same time, imposing too strict emission measures might lead to direct economic losses of certain
traditional enterprises and an increase in unemployment in the short term. Placating stakeholders andconciliate different interests will expect to be challenging for both the central government and its local
counterparts. The dilemma posing between economic development and environmental constraint willcontinue to exist.
Moreover, there has been a lack of new high-tech support for the restructuring of both industrial
sectors and energy mix, due to insufficient scientific research and technological innovation ability. That isprecisely why the Chinese government has started to attach great importance to capacity building, toestablish scientific institutions, conduct fundamental researches and cultivate qualified experts in this field.
Finally, the rules of law and regulations concerning climate change have not been fully established.
Both the Climate Change Law and the Regulation on Carbon Emission Trading have not been adopted yet.
The lack of a sufficient law and regulation system further caused the delay of other important work, such as
the launch of a national carbon trading market. Even if they are to be put into motion, there is always theissue of poor enforcement that should be taken into consideration.

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Opportunities
Despite the challenges, a successful and efficient implementation of the Paris Accord will bring China
with extraordinary opportunities. Opportunities include the extensive possbilities to reduce air pollution, tocreate jobs and increase employment, to boost business and foreign investment, and more importantly, toachieve low-carbon development. By fully delivering its promises on combating climate change andproviding a reference for other countries in the world, China can also gain internatonal reputation and respect,and meanwhile forster internatonal exchanges and cooperation at all apsects.
China apprarently needs to seize current strategic opportunities and devote its every effort to try tofilfull the commitments to the Paris Agreement. Like President Xi Jinping put it, it is not only an unshirkable
duty that we must take as a responsible power in the world but also a duty that we must assume for many
generations to come.

Abbreviations
APEC

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

CCTV

China Central Television

CMA

China Meteorological Administration

FYP

Five Year Plan

GHG

Greenhouse Gas

INDCs

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

LAO

Legislative Affairs Office

MCA

Ministry of Civil Affairs

MEP

Ministry of Environmental Protection

MFAT

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand)

MOC

Ministry of Commerce

MOE

Ministry of Education

MOST

Ministry of Science and Technology

NDRC

National Development and Reform Commission

NEA

National Energy Administration

NGOA

National Government Offices Administration

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

WWF

World Wide Fund for Nature

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