Cop-26: Propaganda against China

COP-26 started with a lot of hype. The hosts, as well as the leaders, described the event as the “last, best hope” to tackle the effects of climate change.

However, the commitments by the world leaders did not live up to their claims. It is surprising to note that world leaders, who have delivered speeches at COP-26, do not appear to be in the mood to act responsibly. They seem more interested in delivering lectures and passing the buck, and pushing the poor and vulnerable countries to do more.

Simultaneously, the Western world along with their partners and allies are looking for a scapegoat. The Western media is trying to play the role of spokesperson for them. They have launched a malicious campaign against China. However, the data analysis shows that historically, China has not played a major role towards Greenhouse Gas emissions.

President Biden has conveniently ignored this data and continued to criticize China, as well as President Xi Jinping for not attending the COP-26. He tried to accuse China of shirking responsibility. Ironically, President Biden has forgotten to mention the historical contribution of USA and the west towards climate change.

However, facts tell a different story. Despite China’s minimal role in climate change, it is striving hard to combat climate change. During the last forty years China has substantially enhanced its forest areas. The total forest area of China was 12% of its land area in 1978, which now stands at 23.4%. This means that China added 11.4% to total forest area, equivalent to 1.1 million square kilometers.

NASA has highlighted that during the last two decades China’s contribution to global greening has been about 25%. It is pertinent to mention here that forests play a leading role in reducing carbon content from the atmosphere, acting as carbon sinks by absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide.

China is busy in establishing a protected area policy to protect and promote biodiversity. President Xi during the COP-15 (Convention on Biological Diversity) announced that China has designated the Three-River-Source National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Forests National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park, as the first batch of protected areas.

China is also tirelessly working to reduce GHG emissions released from different sources. China is leading the world to reduce energy intensity. During the last decade, from 2011-2020, China reduced energy intensity by 28.7 percent per capita of GDP. The proportion of coal is also going down in energy mix of China. It has been noted that coal consumption in China decreased from 72.4 percent in 2005 to 56.8 percent in 2020. This is also evident from the growth rate of energy consumption (2.8%) against the growth rate of GDP (5.7%). Moreover, contribution of non-fossil energy is exhibiting a rising trend in national energy mix; in 2020, it was only 15.9%. This is a clear indication that China is moving away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.

Besides, China, under the vision of eco-civilization and high-quality development, is transforming the whole economic, social and environmental structure of the country to achieve the goal of a beautiful China. Eco-civilization is the core ingredient of all Biodiversity its milestones, policies and visions.

China has a long history with the concept of eco-civilization; Chinese philosophers like Confucius and Tao were the first ones to talk about the concept. They tried to build a theoretical framework of eco-civilization. In modern times, President Xi is championing the cause. He is steering the country to achieve the goal of eco-civilization. He is taking concrete steps like policy of dual circulation, vision of new philosophy of development etc. China, under his leadership has launched the 14^th Five-Year plan and has made bold commitments, which it will be implementing in the next five years.

The Three-Dimensional Transport Network is another major initiative by China to move towards developing eco-civilization. It has been designed to build modern supply chain according to the principles of eco-civilization. China will be looking ways for GHG emission free or relatively environment-friendly options for transportation. Innovation and technological development will be leading instruments to achieve the goal.

President Xi is also putting a lot of emphasis on the digital economy to reduce the carbon footprint. He is encouraging companies to venture into modern digital economy and urging young entrepreneurs to adopt innovation.

President Xi is focusing on the policies, legislation, and tools to implement the environment friendly development plants. He believes that without strong policies and laws, the objectives of environment friendly development cannot be achieved. He is steering China to have the right set of policies and instruments, which will ensure development without compromising on the environmental needs.

It is interesting to note that the countries, which are criticizing China, are those countries which are the major polluters who are not doing enough to combat the challenge of climate change. The real motive of this campaign appears to be to contain China. Thus, no matter what China is doing to combat climate change, it will not satisfy the west or its allies. China should not be bothered by these campaigns and should keep working on its goal of eco-civilization and helping other countries, especially poor and less developed countries.

China has also expanded its green cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative to contribute to achieve the sustainable development goals of “development and environment”. A special forum was launched with the name BRI International Green Development Coalition to facilitate the green transition through BRI.

It is to be hoped that despite all the criticism levelled at China, it will continue to play its role for a beautiful

The writer is CEO, Asian Institute of Eco-Civilization Research and Development.