With China’s pledge of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, the country is demonstrating an increased determination to a profound low-carbon transformation of its economy and society. The Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change is supported by the German Federal Government through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
To facilitate the Sino-German policy dialogue on climate change and to accelerate climate action in these two countries, the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change provides a knowledge-sharing platform for technical exchange among stakeholders. It was established to facilitate the sharing of lessons learned and to raise climate ambition among stakeholders in their decarbonisation pathways.
Our work focuses on the following areas:
From 8 to 15 September 2024, GIZ’s “Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – NDC Implementation” project hosted a study tour on climate change adaptation to Germany and the Netherlands.
Two events took place in Beijing in September 2024, supported by the Sino-German Climate Partnership, a project implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office: the first Sino-German Climate Study Camp, organized in collaboration with Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Tsinghua University, as well as the third keynote lecture of the NextGen Climate Dialogue series. These events strengthened contacts and enabled exchange between young climate leaders from China, Germany, and other European nations, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to tackle the global climate challenge. They also provided a platform for engagement on climate science, policy, and action to those students who sought a better understanding of the science of climate change and avenues for climate action.
The “Sino-German Climate Change Cooperation – NDC Implementation” program serves as the knowledge hub for the IKI in China, promoting networking and exchange among IKI projects and facilitating exchange with political partners. In this role, it invited to this year’s IKI China Interface and Networking Workshop which took place from 28 to 29 August 2024. China is a priority country of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) in which bilateral and regional projects focusing on combatting climate change as well as protecting the environment and biodiversity are being implemented.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Hunan Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (HRAES) jointly kicked-off a collaboration aiming to speed up decarbonization of the transportation sector in Hunan province in Changsha on 25th July 2024. The cooperation with HRAES will contribute to the development of carbon reduction pathways for the transport sector at the provincial level as reference for decision makers to formulate and refine relevant strategies, policies and action plans.
One focus of the NDC Implementation project is the cooperation on climate change adaptation at the subnational level in China, such as supporting provinces with the local implementation of national adaptation strategies. After the selection of partner provinces in consultation with the political partners Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), the first half of 2024 was characterised by an intensive scoping phase during which the provinces put forward their focus areas that would benefit from international cooperation.
Ms. Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action from the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, and Prof. Dirk Messner, president of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), kicked off the NextGen Climate Dialogue Series with lectures two renown Chinese universities. The events took place after the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visited the Tongji University in April 2024 and highlighted the importance of Sino-German cooperation and academic exchange to address global climate challenges.
On June 18th, 2024, the European Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) of the People’s Republic of China signed the Memorandum of Understanding to Enhance cooperation on Emissions Trading (hereinafter referred to as “the MOU”) in Brussels to replace the previous one which was signed on July 18th, 2018. Building on the EU-China Climate Change Partnership and bilateral projects, the cooperation will continue for a period of five years.
On August 2, the State Council released a “Work Plan for Accelerating the Establishment of a Dual-Control System for Carbon Emissions.” Historically, China has focused on managing both the total energy consumption and energy intensity since the 1980s—a strategy known as “dual control of energy.” However, with the growing need to combat climate change and utilize the comparative advantage of clean energy, the Chinese government announced in 2021 that it would gradually transform from a system of “dual control of energy” to a system of “dual control of carbon emission”. In July 2023, the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform officially endorsed the shift from energy dual control to carbon emission dual control.
On 14 May 2024, the NDRC published the Basic Rules for Power Market Operation. This marks the first revision of these rules in 19 years. The new market operation rules are a comprehensive package divided into eleven chapters and 45 articles, and define significant changes compared to the 2005 version. The new electricity market operation rules came into effect on 1 July 2024 and aim to improve various aspects of market design and operation.
To make a first assessment on the implementation of the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change 2035, China’s Ministry of Ecology and the Environment (MEE) issued a progress report on China’s climate change adaptation on June 2, which systematically summarizes the achievements of China’s adaptation to climate change since 2022.
The “Guidelines for Resilient Urban Planning and Land Policy with Integrated Dual-use (Routine-Emergency) Functions” require full play to the strategic guidance and rigid constraint role of national spatial planning in the construction of resilient cities, the improvement of public infrastructure for both Routine-Emergency use, to create livable, resilient, and smart cities.
With its action plan, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) aims to provide guidance to China’s cement sector for achieving energy savings and carbon reduction. The main goals of the plan are to keep cement clinker production capacity at about 1.8 billion tons and to support the entire industry to comply with rules under an efficiency benchmark. The energy intensity of cement clinker production is targeted to decrease by 3.7% compared with 2020, thereby saving 5 million tons of standard coal and 13 million tons of CO2 by 2025.
China’s Ministry of Ecology and the Environment (MEE) issued a program for a carbon footprint management system to develop low-carbon supply chains. This program of MEE is the first national-level policy to establish a domestic carbon footprint management system. The target of the program is the establishment of a general standard for product carbon footprint (PCF) accounting with international standards. It will define about 100 carbon footprint accounting standards for key products until 2027 and 200 until 2030.
China’s State Council issued a 2024-2025 action plan for energy saving and carbon reduction. Goals include cutting energy consumption by 2.5% and CO2 intensity by 3.9% in 2024 while increasing non-fossil energy usage to 18.9% in 2024 and 20% in 2025. The plan projects a reduction of approximately 50 Mt of standard coal and a decrease in emissions by around 130 Mt of CO2. Measures involve strict coal consumption controls, the promotion of new energy vehicles, and enhanced energy efficiency in industries such as steel, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, building materials, architecture, transportation and public institutions.
The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued “The Opinions on Strengthening Ecological Environment Zoning and Control” (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions) on March 17th. It states that ecological environment zoning and control is an important measure to enhance the modernization of ecological environment governance, to ensure ecological functions and improve environmental quality.
