| Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are convening in Lima, Peru for a 12-day conference, to prepare for the next year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Paris, France, during which a new multilateral deal is expected to be agreed upon, before it will take effect in 2020.
The Lima conference will determine whether the next year's Paris conference will achieve its anticipated result. Although the Lima conference seems to be taking place in a better political environment than the Copenhagen conference held five years ago, China is facing unprecedented challenges and pressure, which far outweigh those in 2009.
New international climate change talks
The failure of the Copenhagen climate talks put political pressure on the leaders of major countries. For example, the U.S. President Barack Obama obviously wished to leave a positive legacy on global climate change for himself and the Democratic Party.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in its fifth report about human society's influence on global climate change, and the possibly huge ecological risks if such an influence continues.
Major countries, especially China and the United States, are acting to seek a more positive post-Kyoto Protocol deal. China is experiencing growing public concern on ecological issues and more positive government responses, while the United States openly supported a package of deals in what may be the future Paris Protocol.
For the above three reasons, we have reason to believe the Paris conference to be held in 2015 will form a new international deal, similar to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, to combat global climate. Such optimism is out of the calculation that a single major country or major stakeholder alone could not afford to take the huge political responsibilities like those in the wake of the Copenhagen conference.
At the same time, however, the international community has not reached a thorough political consensus on what the new deal will have as its framework and main elements.
The principles or institutional arrangements agreed by different countries so far are more of a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, besides reflecting the achievements of the negotiations reached at the Cancun, Durban, Doha and Warsaw conferences. But in terms of how each principle would be interpreted, remarkable differences exist between developed countries and developing countries, as well as among developing countries. Therefore, it will be difficult for all parties to reach a legally binding international pact within one year.
Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are convening in Lima, Peru for a 12-day conference, to prepare for the next year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Paris, France, during which a new multilateral deal is expected to be agreed upon, before it will take effect in 2020.
The Lima conference will determine whether the next year's Paris conference will achieve its anticipated result. Although the Lima conference seems to be taking place in a better political environment than the Copenhagen conference held five years ago, China is facing unprecedented challenges and pressure, which far outweigh those in 2009.
New international climate change talks
The failure of the Copenhagen climate talks put political pressure on the leaders of major countries. For example, the U.S. President Barack Obama obviously wished to leave a positive legacy on global climate change for himself and the Democratic Party.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in its fifth report about human society's influence on global climate change, and the possibly huge ecological risks if such an influence continues.
Major countries, especially China and the United States, are acting to seek a more positive post-Kyoto Protocol deal. China is experiencing growing public concern on ecological issues and more positive government responses, while the United States openly supported a package of deals in what may be the future Paris Protocol.
For the above three reasons, we have reason to believe the Paris conference to be held in 2015 will form a new international deal, similar to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, to combat global climate. Such optimism is out of the calculation that a single major country or major stakeholder alone could not afford to take the huge political responsibilities like those in the wake of the Copenhagen conference.
At the same time, however, the international community has not reached a thorough political consensus on what the new deal will have as its framework and main elements.
The principles or institutional arrangements agreed by different countries so far are more of a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, besides reflecting the achievements of the negotiations reached at the Cancun, Durban, Doha and Warsaw conferences. But in terms of how each principle would be interpreted, remarkable differences exist between developed countries and developing countries, as well as among developing countries. Therefore, it will be difficult for all parties to reach a legally binding international pact within one year.
Challenges that China faces
China, as the world's largest developing country, which is also the largest emitter, has the responsibility to take concrete measures in emissions reduction.
China's attitude to global climate change, among other ecological and environmental issues, is an important factor affecting the image of China and its ruling CPC. Domestically, ecological improvement is consistent with other major targets such as China's peaceful rise, the Chinese Dream and the Green Dream.
In assuming a positive role in the BRICS, G20 and the APEC mechanisms, China already showed its support to signing a new climate treaty next year in Paris. Hence, it is not in China's interest to see next year's Paris conference end fruitless.
Then how should China take the right stance at the Lima conference and the following year-long climate negotiations? I would like to propose three considerations.
First, Beijing should make further clarifications to show that China is different from either developed, industrialized Western countries or other average developing countries. This will require China to assume a more active and enterprising attitude in global climate talks, in which it should seek and guard its fundamental interests.
Second, China should establish its stance and policies on global climate change based on international and domestic points of view. In general, a more ambitious roadmap for emissions reduction in combination with a stricter international regulation system is an international trend, which would also help with China's modernization efforts. It means that China is already able to take a more positive stance on climate issues.
Third, China should learn to guard its traditional national interests while seeking new national interests in the contemporary international discourse system, so as to eventually make the transition to a green economy.
To sum up, we have the confidence to show the world that China has become a world leader in shaping global governance to tackle climate change.
The author is a professor at Peking University
(China.org.cn December 9, 2014) | 
