On 24 February 2023, the 5th Steering Committee Meeting of the Sino-German Track II Dialogue (T2D) on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was successfully held online. Organised by GIZ, the meeting was led by the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) in China and the German Environment Agency (UBA).
The Steering Committee is chaired by Prof Xu Huaqing, Director General of NCSC and Member of National Panel of Experts on Climate Change (NPECC), and Dr Dirk Messner, President of UBA. It consists of esteemed experts from China and Germany, including Prof Liu Yanhua, Honorary President of NPECC and former Vice-Minister of Ministry of Science and Technology; Prof Wang Yi, former Vice President of the Institute of Science and Technology Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Deputy Director of NPECC; Prof Li Zheng, President of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ICCSD) of Tsinghua University; and Ms Anke Herold Executive Director of the German Ecological Institute (Öko-Institute).
During the meeting, Mr Gao Xiang, Director of the International Policy Research Department of NCSC, and Ms Anna Rosenbaum, Scientific Officer of UBA, reported on the scenario notes of the T2D. The Steering Committee affirmed the fruitful outcomes achieved in the T2D first phase through dedicated efforts from both sides. A tentative agreement was reached regarding topic selection, working format, and timeline for the next phase.
The final remarks of Prof Xu Huaqing and Dr Dirk Messner noted that the T2D not only contributes to Sino-German climate cooperation, but also facilitates multilateral processes such as climate negotiations, and expressed their expectation that it will be further strengthened in the future.
Since December 2020, the Sino-German Track II Dialogue on Climate Change and Sustainable Development has supported regular exchanges between Chinese and German experts. Organised by the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) with the support of the GIZ-implemented IKI project Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – Climate Partnership. The dialogue is divided into four working groups: Green Recovery, Market-Based Mechanisms to Incentivize Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Science Towards the Long-Term Low GHG Emission/ Carbon Neutrality Strategy and Scenario, and Underpinning Climate Action with Emission Data. There have been a number of working group meetings and higher-level meetings relating to T2D that have taken place since 2021. In the China Pavilion in Sharm el-Sheikh, on 10 November 2022, NCSC and UBA organised an event titled “Green Transitions – How international cooperation can contribute to the NDC’s and long-term strategies: a case study of the Sino-German Track II Dialogue” at COP27, providing an opportunity for the presentation of the first phase of T2D outcomes.
