Executive Summary
This event was part of the series held by the Low Carbon Leadership Network, jointly organised by China Carbon Forum and GIZ. The event discussed a wide range of important issues currently facing China in managing climate change. It focused on the role of local governments and identified some key areas where the panelists thought that improvements could be made. Importantly the panel identified further bilateral collaboration as crucial to helping China meet these challenges successfully.
The event builds on a dialogue which was started in December 2013 when a high level delegation of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), led by Deputy Director General Sun Zhen, traveled to North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) for a series of meetings on the topic of Climate Governance and attended the NRW climate congress in Wuppertal. Since then the dialogue on the topic has continued with various stakeholders, including China’s National Center for Climate Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) and the Wuppertal Institute.
The event provided a valuable forum for interaction and networking between Chinese and German counterparts, especially businesses, foundations, policy experts and government representatives.
Record of Discussion
The following is an edited synthesis of discussion that took place at the event among panelists (around 75 minutes) and open Q&A with participants (30 minutes). As per convention, individual’s comments are not attributed.
The panel heard from Chinese and German representatives on the two countries’ approaches to climate change. While China has prioritised its “top-level design”, this is an evolving process, and the government is also using a bottom-up strategy to help China move toward a more market-oriented approach. At the national level, the central government has clear goals under the five-year planning process, which assigns goals from national to local government level. Besides this, NDRC needs to provide more creative policies through legal reform. For example to establish the carbon trading system, carbon inventories need to be regulated and quantified, establishing differentiated caps moves in to the area of political administration, and within the areas covered by the carbon market allocation methods need to be set appropriately. In the future, China would also like to see further inter-governmental cooperation for the purpose of carbon management and climate goals.
With a special focus on the region of North Rhine-Westphalia, the panel discussed climate policy in Germany at both the national and local levels. In 2013, North Rhine-Westphalia became the first German state to pass a Climate Protection Law with legally binding mitigation targets. On the one hand, the Climate Protection Law is supposed to serve as a legal framework for reducing CO2 emissions, on the other hand it is also an important guiding principle, which will determine North Rhine- Westphalia’s climate protection policy over the coming legislative periods and therefore lays out the political goals for the next 30 to 40 years. A distinctive aspect of North Rhine-Westphalia’s climate protection policy is the cooperation of more than 400 stakeholders from different areas of expertise, who are working together on a climate protection plan which will serve as a road map for climate governance at the state level. In this regard, the national level could take North Rhine-Westphalia as an example for broad public participation in conceptualizing its national climate protection plan for 2016.
The panel discussed the limitations of economic advice on climate policy, given the unpredictability of economic development. This contrasts in some ways with the high-degree of certainty in regard to climate impacts. This makes policy advice a unique challenge.
This event builds on existing cooperation between NRW and NDRC. A Chinese delegation visited Germany in December 2013, in recognition of the progress that the German local governments such as NRW have made in relation to the low-carbon transition. This progress includes legal approaches that could inform progress in China. The visit helped Chinese representatives see how local German governments had connected their local goals with the wider climate change issue in the public mind, helping to provide important public support. Government’s also need to send a signal to companies in order to encourage technology innovation.
Further progress depends on a process of exchange of views and experience, and it is not a zero-sum game. The Chinese government’s goal is for climate change professionals to be involved in training political leaders, mayors, and party leaders. Many problems remain to be solved, and many lessons to be learnt.
The panel discussed existing partnerships between NRW and China, especially business partnerships, which are already very diverse. Furthermore, climate protection offers substantial business opportunities, especially in the field of energy efficiency and energy saving. Many market leaders in this area of expertise are located in North Rhine-Westphalia. One example of this expertise is the manufacturing of heating pump systems which require over 80 percent less energy. Therefore it is important to access these new growth markets and further strengthen technical development and cooperation between Germany and China.
Exploring the theme of the event, the panel discussed how local policy informs national policy in China, and the central/local decision-making balance. China has a long history of promoting pilot projects which is not well understood outside of China. While the government is not currently confident enough to predict when China’s overall emissions may peak, several local-level administrations have broached this topic, including Beijing and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu. In short, there is significant potential for local governments to influence national policies. China is such a vast and diverse country, and each province has unique characteristics, the experience in Jiangsu might not be useful for Inner Mongolia. the central government has to be responsible for the entire country, while local government has the flexibility to adapt to its own conditions.
President Xi has appealed to officials to learn from international experience. Germany and China have existing collaboration for over a hundred years. Germany should not be worried that China would surpass it economically. However China is in a unique situation and must work hard to reduce its environmental footprint, faster than has happened in developed countries. China is ranked as the world number one in many areas, but still has much to learn. American creativity, Japan’s approach to crisis, and Germany’s precision should all provide an example to China.
The panel was asked to consider the issue of climate change adaptation, and how to plan for it at the local level. The panel pointed out that bottom-up processes are very important for climate change adaptation. While climate protection policies are made at the central level in Beijing and Berlin, it is the local and regional level where those policies have to be implemented. Therefore, innovations and ideas from the local level like the stakeholder process in North Rhine-Westphalia are needed to better realise climate protection measures.
China needs to have a sense of crisis awareness in relation to climate change and domestic development. However there are conflicts arrising from statements for domestic and foreign audiences. For example the government tells foreign partners that it is still developing and should not be asked to take on strong commitments. At the same time, the government asks local administrations to meet increasing tough standards. This leads to confusion among local governments who are concerned that the central government might have concealed motivations, and in many cases choose to proceed as normal. This dynamic does not exist in the way that other countries deal with the media. The panel expressed hope that Chinese local governments will expand their communication and exchange of experience with foreign and other local governments.
The panel challenged the conventional wisdom that China is shifting its pollution problem west, as the east develops. In fact it was suggested that some western regions have been advancing faster than counterparts in the east. Fairness is an important issue for transforming the economy of China’s western region, why should they bear the environmental costs of the wealthier eastern coastal area without compensation?