How can China & the UK address climate change?

Themes: China’s past and current climate policy; shared climate objectives between the UK and China; how both nations can expand partnerships; possible global impacts of such a cooperation.

Concise commentary on complex issues from different points of view.

The UKNCC Guest Contributor Programme offers contrasting ‘short, sharp reads’ for those seeking a fuller exploration of key questions. This June 2021 edition explores the question:

“How can the UK and China strengthen cooperation on climate change and biodiversity?”

Authors, alphabetically by surname:

• Christine Loh, Chief Development Strategist, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Institute for the Environment
• Erik Solheim, Vice Chair, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development

Contact us at:
perspective.ukncc@pm.me

How can the UK and China strengthen cooperation on climate change and biodiversity?

Christine Loh
Chief Development Strategist
Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology’s Institute for the Environment
April 2022

The UK National Committee on China (UKNCC) Guest Contributor Programme highlights contrasting responses, by leading authors, to key questions posed by the UKNCC. The programme is designed to stimulate a deeper exploration of China related issues; drive curiosity; and test conventional wisdom.

Contact us at:
perspective.ukncc@pm.me

China’s rich biodiversity is threatened as a result of four decades of fast-paced growth. A long-term strategy is now in place to reverse degradation and achieve sustainable development although many gaps still need to be filled.

Designated as one of the United Nations’ 17 mega-diverse countries, China has 10% of the world’s plant and 14% of its animal species. Industrialisation, urbanisation, deforestation, introduction of alien species and lack of protection have caused huge damage.

“Ecological civilization” is the new development principle. Since it was added to the Chinese Communist Party’s constitution in 2012, and the Chinese national constitution was amended to include it in 2018, many new environmental laws, regulations, guidelines, targets, and timelines have been published on top of which China pledged to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Ministries too have been restructured to reflect the importance of ecology in decision-making.

Taken together, China is on a revolution path to cleaning-up pollution, decarbonise, reviving biodiversity, and strengthening ecosystems. The principle of ecological civilisation mandates ecological protection, environmental management and restoring degradation that at the same time improve rural livelihoods. Since the mid-1990s, Chinese scholarship in biodiversity has increased dramatically. Chinese scientists are doing cutting-edge work at the level of genes, species, ecosystems and their services, landscapes, and conducting regular surveys and monitoring so as to establish baseline data and trends.

Their work provides the basis for understanding biodiversity status and threats. The poster child is the increasing population of giant pandas as a result of new breeding methods and establishing nature reserves. Although threats still exist, pandas are no longer endangered as they once were. The close relationship between the government and research institutions at universities and academies enable learning to be mainstreamed into policy deliberations and eventually into local and national plans. For example, the national 13ᵗʰ Five Year Plan (2016-20) emphasised the need to strengthen ecological

protection and restoration, requiring the incorporation of major conservation initiatives including the creation of a new national park system and red line designations for ecosystems conservation.

A network of five national parks covering 230,000 kilometres and containing 30% of China’s terrestrial species was finally formally declared in October 2021, coinciding with the first part of the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity, held in Kunming, referred to as COP15. Once completed, this network will be the world’s largest national park system and an improvement on a patchwork of smaller preservation areas with suboptimal protection against illegal developments and resource extraction.

Alongside the national parks is the redline system, which has been written into environmental- and securityprotection laws to give it the legal status essential to implementation and enforcement. Its origin was the flooding of the Yangtze in 1998 that killed 3,000 people and caused US$20 billion in damage.

The government realised over-grazing and deforestation exacerbated the flood, which eventually led to new policies to protect whole regions using an ecological yardstick. For example, around the Yangtze delta, 29,000 square kilometres of land is protected, including the river’s shorelines, wetlands, and grasslands. The region has 11% of the population and produces 20% of China’s GDP.

The current national 14ᵗʰ Five Year Plan (2021-25) builds upon the previous plan. A goal is set to increase forest cover from 23.4% in 2020 to 24.1% by 2025.

Other notable new targets include protecting many more hectares of land against soil erosion, restoring wetlands and grasslands, and the protection of coastlines and marine and coastal habitats.

The recently published development plan for the forest and grass industry (2021-25) is yet another prong of activity to protect land and promote sustainable practices. The plan sets a boundary between land for food production so that no arable or farmland will be lost, and for forestry and grassland, which are important for carbon sequestration. It also seeks to modernise the forestry and grass industry with sustainability approaches.

Despite these and many other positive efforts, there are still gaps in protecting biodiversity comprehensively in China. What scientists and policymakers are grappling with are the same challenges as what their counterparts face elsewhere – how to integrate sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, and climate change holistically into effective evidence-based policies that are implementable on the ground.

As a development country, China acknowledges that its systems and institutions still need to evolve so that regulations and enforcement are clear and workable.

Successful implementation depends on support from the people, which in turn depends on public education, as well as skilful political negotiations with vested interests that often include some form of compensation. Getting it all done requires tremendous and considerable time.

Just as 2021 was a pivotal year for climate change, with Britain playing the important role of hosting COP26 in Glasgow, it was equally important that China hosted COP15 on biodiversity in Kunming.

In fact, COP15 is not all done yet, as concluding meetings will be held in October 2022 when delegates return to Kunming. The resumption of COP15 will hopefully end with an agreed global game plan for nature conservation over the next decade that is both ambitious and practical. Past biodiversity targets have not been met.

It should not be overlooked that at Glasgow, a large number of countries signed the Declaration on Forests and Land Use. They recognised the interdependence of protecting biodiversity, fighting climate change, and attaining sustainable development.

The signatories, which included Britain and China, pledged to collectively end forest loss and land degradation by 2030, and over US$19 billion was pledged from many quarters towards the cause, with China and Britain both pledging contributions.

The second part of COP15 in Kunming can be seen as a continuation of COP26 and presents an opportunity for Britain and China to widen and deepen their cooperation. In fact, the leaders of both countries had worked hard to support each other on the success of both COP’s so the goodwill can be extended to the second half of COP15.

Beyond mutual support during negotiations of multilateral treaties, Britain and China can do more on a bilateral basis. There are already longstanding research and project specific efforts to build upon (cont…)

While China’s efforts over the years have resulted in innovations, such as the red-line system that may be adapted for other countries to protect rare and endangered species and their habitats, Britain too needs to innovate as populations of its most important wildlife have dropped by 60% in 50 years, as revealed by the 2019 State of Nature report.

No matter what other problems Britain and China may have on other fronts at a time when the world is in serious conflict and disorder, planetary health is an area that should offer many opportunities for cooperation. For example, China as a manufacturing economy can work with Britain to tackle reducing the biodiversity and climate impacts from both a production and consumption perspective, such as in forestry products. Another area where the two countries have good cooperation is on green finance, which can help to raise capital and create new financial products to protect important natural assets.

The next decade is the ‘make or break’ time for the planet. Britain and China can make a pact to work on averting this existential crisis on both climate change and biodiversity.

Erik Solheim
Vice Chair
China Council for International Cooperation on
Environment and Development
April 2022

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