BEIJING: President Xi Jinping used the phrase “actively participate” when describing China’s future role in addressing climate crisis in his key speech at the Communist party’s 20th national congress inaugural on Sunday instead of his 2017 assertion that China would take the global “driving seat” in doing so.
Xi’s decision to seemingly reduce China’s role in fighting climate crisis – it’s the biggest emitter globally – is a signal that the country has not only emerged bruised and chastened from crippling power shortages in the last couple of years but also that the China-US “climate honeymoon” is over.
For now, at least.
“Deeply promote energy revolution, strengthen the clean and efficient use of coal, accelerate the planning and construction of a new energy system, and actively participate in addressing climate change and global governance,” Xi said on October 16, addressing nearly 3,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People.
Compare that to what he had said at a similar CPC national congress in 2017: “Taking a driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change, China has become an important participant, contributor, and torchbearer in the global endeavour for ecological civilisation.”
The Chinese leader had also noted in 2017 that China’s efforts to reduce consumption and save resources were paying off domestically and setting an example globally.
Not so much anymore, it seems.
“There was no big surprise in the report (read out by Xi) on climate and environmental sections. The lines were largely boilerplate. There is a tension in the climate part between the need to decarbonise and to ensure energy security. The report did not provide any decisive answer on how to balance these competing priorities: It just laid this dynamic out,” Li Shuo, the Beijing-based global policy advisor for Greenpeace East Asia, said.
Li said that there was a vision on tackling climate crisis in Xi’s speech at the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) congress in 2017. “China was to be a participant, a contributor and a leader (in fighting climate change). This report simply says we need to actively engage,” Li added.
The global situation has changed in the past five years especially because of the Covid-19 pandemic; China’s economy has slowed down compared to its rate of growth five years ago.
The US and China were still talking on climate crisis despite serious bilateral differences on other issues.
No longer. China suspended climate talks with the US in August as part of measures in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.
China’s own economic and power problems contributed to its apparent shift on international climate issues.
“The several power crises that China suffered for different reasons but the fact there were temporary power shortages just strengthened the perception, rightly or wrongly, that we (China) need to secure our energy security. And, the way to do that is to embrace the resources that we have domestically, which are primarily coal-fired power plants,” Li said.
Greenpeace’s own research points to China’s continuing interest in fossil fuels
“Provincial governments across China approved plans to add a total 8.63 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power plants in the first quarter of 2022 alone, already 46.55% the capacity approved throughout 2021,” a Greenpeace report released in July said.
In 2012, Xi had pledged to “strictly control” coal and start cutting its use starting in 2026 to bring its climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to a peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
There was promise in last Sunday’s speech too.
China, Xi promises, will support low-carbon industries, pursue an “energy revolution” and build a new energy system while continuing to promote the “clean and efficient use of coal”.
Overall, however, Xi’s speech seems to indicate that China now has a more modest appetite when it comes to international climate issues compared to five years ago.
