Participants attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, Dec. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Jaap Arriens)
With barely 24 hours left to reach a consensus at the ongoing climate change summit in Poland, four big oil and gas manufacturing countries have expressed their disagreement. Amidst looming uncertainty, China again reiterated its commitment to honor the climate deal.
Addressing delegates at the summit, Xie Zhenhua, China's Special Representative on Climate Change said, we will keep supporting multilateralism and firmly adhere to the path of green and low carbon development. "China will fulfill its commitment 100 percent," he said.
China has drastically reduced emissions and met carbon intensity goals three years early, meeting a crucial climate goal. Massive use of renewable, afforestation and a series of reforms are helping the country massively curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
For China, the recently launched carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) has become a game changer. Surpassed the European Union's ETS, the scheme has become the world's largest.
At present, the country's ETS has been implemented in seven pilot regions and opened up for energy and cement sector. Xie maintained during his address that a consensus is needed to save the planet from rising temperature.
"All parties should fulfill their commitments under the Climate Change Convention and the Paris Agreement without compromise, strengthen their actions before and after 2020," he added.
"We look forward to the completion of the negotiation on the implementation of rules, as scheduled in Katowice."
Around 198 countries are attending the climate change conference and are working together to prepare a "rulebook" to implement the Paris Agreement. The agreement mandates a massive reduction in emissions and seeks country's commitment to meet climate goals.
At Paris, countries agreed to keep the global temperature rise within two degrees Celsius. In October, Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) released a scientific report underlining 1.5 degrees Celsius target is achievable.
While the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Russia have refused to accept scaled up action needed to meet 1.5 degrees Celsius target, China's firm stand comes as a boost to climate talks.
Xie also hinted that for developing countries, the paucity of funds acts as a hindrance to meet climate goals.
At the Copenhagen climate change summit, developed countries agreed to raise a fund of 100 billion U.S. dollars to help developing countries mitigate the impact of temperature rise. The commitment remains unfulfilled and the issue was brought up again at Doha talks.
