The fallout from the recently-reached global climate agreement has been mixed for world superpowers, as recent statements suggest that the deal is far from being perfect from China, but a good move forward nonetheless. This is similar to statements made by U.S. President Barack Obama following the all-important 196-nation climate change summit held earlier this month in Paris.
“This accord isn’t perfect,” said China senior climate change envoy Xie Zhenhua to reporters following the global climate summit. “There are parts of it that need to be improved. But this doesn’t affect the fact that history has taken a huge step forward, and so we are satisfied.
“It should provide a lot of impetus for China’s own green, low-carbon development and as we implement it, it will promote our own domestic sustainable development.”
China, which is the world’s leader in greenhouse gas emissions, had gone into the Paris talks with the maxim of “differentiation, transparency, and ambition” in mind, and as the most important features of any agreement. The country’s representatives also did their part to maintain China’s sovereignty. Chinese economic statistics have slowed down noticeably as the country continues its economic restructuring program, which is the reason why officials pushed for adjustments to its climate goals from 2020 to 2030 to be voluntary.
The topic of financing was singled out as one of the main pain points for China, as the climate agreement was not satisfactory in extending a pre-existing pledge for industrialized nations to inject at least $100 billion of funds per year toward poorer countries’ climate change initiatives by 2020.
“On funding, we aren’t that satisfied, especially when it comes to pre-2020 funding which is relatively weak,” said National Centre for Climate Change Strategy deputy director Zou Ji. “On post-2020 funding, they have written in the principle that developed countries have to provide support to developing countries but there are a lot of specifics that were impossible to put in the agreement.”