On May 24, 2022, the Chinese and German experts of the four working groups of the Sino-German Track-2-Dialogue (T2D) came together virtually to present the results of their collaboration at the fourth Steering Committee Meeting. In the presence of the T2D co-chairs—UBA President Prof. Dirk Messner, as well as Director General of NCSC Prof. XU Huaqing – public procurement and financing in green recovery, hydrogen strategy for achieving greenhouse gas and carbon neutrality, China and Germany’s emission trading systems, collection of emission data were discussed.
Working group 1, which focuses on the topics of Green Recovery and Green Transformation presented the plan for research on how public financing and public procurement can contribute to achieving the Paris Agreement with a special focus on hydrogen .
Working group 2, whose work is focused on market-based mechanisms. as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, delivered the research plan on the role of international forums. to build carbon markets as well as the progress of carbon markets in China and Germany/the EU.
Working group 3, which examines long-term low GHG emission and carbon neutrality strategies and scenarios, elaborated on the 1+N policy system in China as well as the “Jing-Jin-Ji” (China’s national capital economic zone) project case study as an example of coal phase-out and hydrogen build-up.
Working group 4, whose members took stock of the IPCC reporting mechanism to provide a better understanding of how to underpin climate action with emission data, will further exchange and collaborate data at the corporate level. The two sides reached the consensus that emission data at the company level is crucial and cooperation in monitoring and verification of this data is needed. Working Group 4 also plans to produce a report on practical implementation to incorporate data into national inventories until the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (UNFCCC COP27) held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The co-chairs of the steering committee acknowledged the accomplishments of the cooperation and the important role of T2D in accelerating change to reach a GHG- and carbon-neutral future.
The Sino-German T2D on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was launched in December 2020 and complements the political dialogue with opportunities for technical exchange, mutual learning and reaching consensus at a technical level. The T2D is organized by the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NSCS) on the Chinese side and the German Environment Agency (UBA) on the German side and supported by GIZ.
