China and France agreed Monday that an international deal to tackle climate change to be negotiated in Paris should include checks on compliance, in what visiting French President Francois Hollande called a “historic” step forward.
The Paris conference will be attended by at least 80 world leaders including China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama.
It seeks to unite all the world’s nations in a single agreement on tackling climate change, with the goal of capping warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
Each signatory’s progress should be reviewed every five years, China and France said in a joint statement, to “reinforce mutual confidence and promote efficient implementation”. They gave no details, AFP reported.
“The Paris accord must send a clear signal for the world to engage in a transition towards green, low-carbon development that is sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change,” it said.
The two also reiterated that the deal should be legally binding -- something which China had already agreed in its submission in June to the conference.
In that document, Beijing also said checks on compliance should be “non-intrusive, non-punitive and respecting national sovereignty”.
China is the world’s largest polluter and will be a key player at the event, which begins on November 30, in the face of disputes over whether developed or developing countries should bear more of the burden for reducing emissions.
The joint declaration acknowledged the issue, saying that “flexibility should be offered to developing countries who should require it, according to their capacities”.
Hollande said the statement was a “major step” towards an agreement in Paris, where China was “necessary, indispensable” for success.
Deal Possible
“With this declaration, we have set up conditions which open the way to success and I am minded to believe that an agreement is now possible,” he told reporters.
“The conditions were laid in Beijing today, it will be said. This visit is historic. And I am weighing my words.”
But environmental campaign group Greenpeace was more measured, describing the announcement as an “incremental step forward” that showed “the ambition gap the world still needs to bridge”.
Xi said that China was making “unceasing efforts” in the fight against climate change, and would carry on working to ensure that a deal was reached in Paris.
Beijing, which was blamed for scuppering a 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, promised last year that carbon dioxide emissions would peak “by around 2030”.
The Asian giant’s stance was “drastically different” from six years ago, Greenpeace China climate policy advisor Li Shuo said, but added: “Chinese leaders need to think hard about what more to bring to the table.”
Peak Around 2030
China says economic uncertainty means it cannot set a precise date for when it will begin reducing emissions. It calls on developed countries to take the lead on cuts.
It also has ambitious targets to increase its use of non-fossil fuels.
The US, the world’s number two emitter of carbon dioxide, says it aims to cut emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels by 2025.
The European Union, the third largest producer of greenhouse gases, pledged last year to reduce emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
Iran, the world’s 11th largest producer of carbon dioxide, is the only big emitter that has yet to submit its climate plans to the UN. However, Majid Shafipour, Iran’s chief delegate at a UN climate meeting in Bonn last month, told Bloomberg that the country could as much as quadruple its efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions if economic sanctions imposed by the US, UN and EU end.
Iran produces nearly 800 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.
Food Security
Among the most severe fallouts of climate change is a threat to food security, according Hilal Elver, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
All these climate incidents will negatively impact on crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and on people’s livelihoods,” she said in a news release on Tuesday, warning that responding to the food demand through large-scale production oriented agricultural models is not the right solution.
Elver noted that countries which have contributed the least to global warming are the ones set to suffer the most from its harmful effects.
“Urgent action is needed to respond to the challenges posed by climate change, but mitigation and adaptation policies should respect the right to food as well as other fundamental human rights,” she added.
