Following the mapping workshop held on 15 October 2019, further mapping activities were performed from November 2019 to January 2020. These activities included extensive surveys via questionnaires as well as individual interviews with key stakeholders in each participating country. The final mapping report – entitled Mapping of EU (EU Member States and EU Institutions) Climate Cooperation Activities with China – was then completed in May 2020, which marked the successful completion of all mapping activities under the SPIPA project.
The purposes of the SPIPA mapping activities were to provide a holistic overview of Member States’ cooperation efforts with China within the area of climate change and NDC implementation, to delineate where improvements might be needed, to identify how to best complement each country’s comparative advantages, and to facilitate more efficient knowledge-sharing and capacity building.
The mapping exercises were performed over the course of 6 months, during which questionnaires and information from the EU institutions and 6 member states were collected, namely Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands. The mapping report contains information about 132 projects amounting to €3.269 billion. All participating Member States and the EU institutions gave positive evaluations of their individual climate cooperation with China. According to the survey feedback, they concluded that the cooperation has proven to be productive and has provided comprehensive support to the different levels of the Chinese government for addressing the complexities related to climate change issues. During the mapping, each country participant indicated a desire to continue their collaboration with China on climate-related issues, whilst highlighting that communication and coordination mechanisms need to be strengthened. All participants agreed that the mapping activity was a mutually beneficial exercise that revealed areas for further cooperation and areas which could still be enhanced.
