This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Jonathan Smith, and Max Song
The idea of a total cap on energy consumption in China, first suggested last March before the National People’s Congress has reemerged in Durban, and surprisingly there are now suggestions that China might consider some kind of a cap on carbon emissions. This has been suggested apparently as part of domestic policy rather than as a negotiating position, but details are very sketchy.
Over the last week, we have been witnessing an active debate amongst Chinese academics and researchers on energy and carbon caps, although these discussions have taken place separately, from outside the plenary floor and in the multitude of side events the Chinese delegation has been hosting. Chinese negotiators have been careful to not muddy the…
China's Vice Minister for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua launches the China Pavilion alongside UNFCCC Secretariat Cristiana Figueres.
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs. When China launched its first official pavilion at a UN climate conference on Sunday, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat Cristiana Figueres was there alongside China’s NDRC Vice Minister Xie Zhenhua to cut the ribbon. Swarmed by journalists in the standing-room only conference center of the China pavilion in Durban, Figueres applauded China for being a “trend-setter” in global renewable energy, resonating around the world and during the first week of climate negotiations in Durban. “As I look at what has happened here at Durban in the negotiations this past week, what I see is a sailboat that has been sailing over very difficult…
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Max Song, and Jonathan Smith
As the first week of the UN climate negotiations in Durban are underway, one of the most persistent themes has been how to bridge gaps - the divide between the developed and developing countries, many of whom disagree about whether the Kyoto Protocol should be extended into a second commitment period; the hole in climate finance pledges from developed countries; and the ambition or emissions gap between the Copenhagen pledges and the stabilization of global temperatures below a 2 degrees Celsius increase from pre-industrial levels.
These three major gaps must be addressed in Durban. One major question will be whether developing and some developed countries, Europe in
Interview with China energy expert Jiang Kejun, Energy Research Institute, NDRC
By Angel Hsu and Grant Tolley
Negotiators from 194 countries and observers from nearly 1, 400 organizations are trickling into the bustling halls of the International Convention Centre (ICC) Durban today for the global climate talks. Among them are 26 graduate students from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES), who are participating in the negotiations as a capstone to a semester of learning about global climate change governance in theory and by working directly with a stakeholder in practice. Historically, F&ES has a long tradition of participating in international environmental conferences as a way of bringing to life the challenge of developing institutions and treaties to deal with pressing environmental issues. In the age of “conference diplomacy” that has emerged since the momentous Rio Earth…
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs and WRI Insights.
By Deborah Seligsohn and Angel Hsu
- Assigning specific targets to the provinces to
