Tackling our Climate Crisis through Climate Governance
As the impacts of climate change intensify — including more extreme weather and sea level rise — it is increasingly urgent that countries and communities enhance their capacities for combating climate change. The Chinese government is determined to strengthen its legislative framework for climate policy and has been engaging in intensive international exchange and research. As the project “NDC Implementation” supports the capacity building in the field of climate governance and climate legislation both on national and subnational level, the study tour was organized, with the aim to facilitate an exchange on climate governance and legislation of the Beijing Ecology and Environment Bureau with experts and peers at city governments for in Germany. The interest by the Beijing Ecology and Environment Bureau in German practices arose after attending a technical workshop organised by the project on the topic of climate legislation in September 2023.
Technical Exchange with Climate Expert Institutions and Government Representatives of Partner City Berlin
Starting in Berlin, the delegation first visited the think tank Ecologic Institute. After the Chinese delegation presented their plans and measures in the field of climate legislation and governance, Ecologic Institute introduced their related publication “Addressing Climate Change in Cities” and the project “Ready4NetZero”, focusing on how to design long-term emission reduction and climate neutrality strategies for the local level. Main topics during the lively discussion after were the availability of sectoral emission data to support political decision-making as well as potential legislative measures to promote emission reduction in the building and transport sector.
Next on the agenda were visits to NewClimate Institute, who presented their study on “Coal phase-out and just transitions”, and to the Urban Development Planning Division of the Berlin Senate Administration, where low carbon urban planning strategies were discussed.
Linking up with Climate Experts and Government Representatives of Partner City Cologne
After these three meetings in Berlin, the delegation moved on to its other German partner city, Cologne, to meet with representatives of the Climate Protection Coordination Centre of the Cologne city government. The representatives from Cologne introduced long-term climate neutrality strategies for energy and industry. Once again, one of the main topics of interest for the Chinese delegation was data availability, specifically, how Germany uses available data for decision-making.
As a last stop of the tour, the delegation made a field trip to the German company igus GmbH, which specialises in precision injection-molded parts made from engineering plastics. Before a tour through the factory, the Chinese delegation and the CEO of igus had an open discussion on German and Chinese strategies for achieving decarbonization targets, as well as how public policies influence the companies’ decarbonization strategies. A prominent example that was highlighted was the introduction of Emission Reduction Schemes (ETS) with slowly but surely increasing prices of emission allowances, which gradually forces private sector companies to switch to the use of low-emission technologies.
Fruitful Exchange on Climate Governance and Climate Legislation
For both the Chinese delegation participants and the German officials and experts the study tour was a success. It served as a platform for exchange on climate governance and legislation. Both sides had the opportunity to learn about how climate governance and legislation are applied in China and Germany to tackle the global climate crisis.
This collaboration is part of the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – NDC Implementation (NDCI) project, a bilateral cooperation project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
