The Biodiversity, Climate and Environment (BCE) Group operates in one of the four priority areas of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) China. The group currently manages seven projects via three technical teams (Climate Policy, Carbon Markets & Climate Finance, Biodiversity & Environment Protection).The projects summarised within this group are a clear recognition that supporting China in developing and implementing effective climate and environmental policies and cooperating with the country in the international climate governance system is critical to protect global public goods.
In line with China’s role as an emerging economy and crucial player in international climate and biodiversity protection efforts, the projects take a cooperation approach that emphasises exchange and mutual learning. Given the focus of the BCE Group, the ministries leading the cooperation process are the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) from the German side and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) from the Chinese side. The basis for cooperation is the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Combatting Climate Change and the annual meeting of the Sino-German Working Group on Environment and Climate Change during which specific cooperation projects are launched.
Beyond promoting dialogue between the relevant ministries on both sides, GIZ is also assisting China in developing renewable energies and enhancing energy efficiency in industry and buildings. Other projects focus on provincial-level low-carbon development strategies, the introduction of the Chinese national emissions trading system and the implementation of the country’s nationally determined contributions (NDC).
On the afternoon of 22 March (Beijing time), GIZ China, the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), and the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Readiness (PMI) launched the Chinese version of Emissions Trading in Practice: A Handbook on Design and Implementation”, the second version of which was released in English in 2021.
During a planning workshop on the Dual-Carbon Piloting School for Jiangsu Province, held on 04 March, it was jointly agreed to initiate the development of dual-carbon piloting school standards and a low carbon and environment protection curriculum and piloting for preschool education.
On 25 February, a brainstorm seminar on the establishment of the Nanjing Carbon Neutral Building Research Center took place. The proposed research center is authorized by the Nanjing Science and Technology Bureau and will be established by the Nanjing Second Architectural Design Institute. Relevant experts from research institutes, universities and enterprises, as well as from the Jiangsu Project participated in the seminar to make suggestions for the establishment and development of the research center.
The workshop was opened by Dr GAO Xiang from NCSC and Mr Steffen MENZEL of the GIZ NDC Implementation project who also introduced the participants from NCSC, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and Climate Analytics (CA).
During the workshop on 26 January, the NDCI project‘s workstream on sectoral best practices met up with Chinese partners and experts from the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), the Energy Research Institute (ERI), China Cement Association, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in order to discuss next steps for the planned cooperation on aligning the Chinese cement sector with the Chinese NDC targets.
On 13 January, the NDC implementation project discussed possible topics for emission reduction studies in selected sectors to be prepared together with Chinese experts.
In the first weeks of the new year, the Track-2-Dialogue (T2D) working groups 1 to 4 dealt with the content-related and organisational re-orientation of their fields of work.
Energy and climate became significant topics besides China’s economic development during this year’s “Two Sessions”.
The second Steering Committee Meeting of the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change (SGCCC) took place on 24 March in a hybrid setting.
China, a major player in terms of climate change and biodiversity conservation – it is one of 12 mega-biodiversity countries in addition to being the currently largest absolute CO2 emitter – wants to create synergies for climate and biodiversity action on its path towards achieving green development and living in harmony with nature. IKI projects support this.
After July 2021 reports had shown that the technical service company China Carbon Energy Investment and S&T (中碳能投科技有限公司) falsified emission data and supported key enterprises in their effort to manipulate their data of the first compliance cycle, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) announced to increase its attention on the quality of emission data.
On 23 March 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published the “Medium and Long-term Plan for Hydrogen Energy Industry Development (2021-2035)”.
