Rich nations urged to honor climate pledges

While addressing two recent high-profile international summits, President Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the concerns of developing countries, urging rich nations to bolster climate efforts and honor their commitments.

Experts said the president's speeches demonstrated China was behaving as a responsible major world power that speaks out for developing economies and safeguards multilateralism, while striving to fulfill its duties in the global climate process.

"Developed countries need to lead by example on emission reduction, fully accommodate the special difficulties and concerns of developing countries, deliver on their commitments of climate financing, and provide technology, capacity-building, and other support for developing countries," Xi said via video link when addressing the first session of the 16th Group of 20 Leaders' Summit on Oct 30.

The moves would be critically important for the success of the COP26 conference, he stressed.

Officially known as the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP26 is being held in Glasgow, Scotland, and is scheduled to conclude on Nov 12.

In a written statement to the World Leaders Summit at the conference on Nov 1, Xi once again urged rich countries to take visible action.

"Developed countries should not only do more themselves, but should also provide support to help developing countries do better," he said.

Xi also called for parties to uphold the idea of common but differentiated responsibilities, a core principle included in UNFCCC and its 2015 Paris Agreement.

As an illustration of the principle, the Paris Agreement stipulates that rich countries should mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations tackle and adapt to climate change. The commitment, however, is yet to fully materialize.

According to an assessment in September by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries for developing countries totaled $79.6 billion in 2019, which was up 2 percent on the $78.3 billion in 2018.

The limited progress in overall climate finance volumes is disappointing, Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the organization, was quoted as saying in an online statement.

While appropriately verified data for 2020 will not be available until early next year, it is clear that climate finance will remain well short of its target, he noted.

Article 9 of the Paris Agreement also says developed countries must provide financial resources to help developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation.

Tang Xinhua, an expert from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said China has always vigorously safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of developing nations in the world's climate governance process.

China prioritizes upholding the UN's multilateral framework in coping with climate change and adheres to UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement on climate change as cornerstones of the multilateral process, said Tang, who is also deputy director of the institutes' Center for Climate Change and Ecologic Security Studies.

Referring to common but differentiated responsibilities as a most important principle, Tang said China, while fulfilling its international obligations, has been making efforts to speak out for developing countries.

The efforts will help safeguard the stability and continuity of the global multilateral governance mechanism and its order, and ensure effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, he said.

Developed nations should make greater contributions in reducing emissions because they bear more historical responsibility for emitting heat-trapping gases, he said. Their support in funding, technology, and capacity-building for poor nations is necessary for the formation of united, joint global climate actions.

"China has also endeavored to help other developing countries to jointly promote their capabilities in tackling climate change," Tang said. "This also shows China as a power that proactively performs its responsibility and fulfills its obligations."

Like many other developing countries, China has fallen victim to extreme weather events caused by climate change, Tang said, citing this year's deadly torrential floods in Central China's Henan province as an example.

Against the backdrop of the failure of developed nations to honor their commitments, China has proactively rolled out cooperation programs with other developing nations in both climate migration and adaption, and supported technology use and clean-energy development, he said.