The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which attracted global attention, concluded on the evening of December 13, UAE time. During COP28, a side event on the opportunities and challenges for non-governmental organizations to participate in local "dual carbon" construction, co-sponsored by the All-China Environment Federation and the Energy Association, was successfully held in the China corner of the conference, showing the experience and solutions of China's local dual carbon governance for the guests from all over the world.
Xie Zhenhua, China's Special Envoy for Climate Change, attended the side event and delivered a speech. Xie Zhenhua said that although the climate change negotiations have been anxious, there is one thing that everyone has agreed on, in addition to playing an important role in dealing with the climate crisis, it is inseparable from the support and participation of the whole society. Achieving carbon neutrality is a radical and systemic social change, which requires the participation of the private sector. I would like to thank all the civil society organizations in our country for their support and mobilization for China's environmental protection cause, because only when the whole society, especially the youth group, is involved, can there be hope for the fight against climate change.
Pan Jiahua, deputy director of the National Climate Change Expert Committee, gave a systematic interpretation of the theme of the meeting. He said he was very pleased to be here to discuss the role of civil society and localities** in driving the country's zero-carbon transition. There are many types of civil society organizations in our country that have the knowledge, information and passion to provide professional support to the local and even the local community, which is very important for our society and local governments to work together to achieve the zero-carbon transition process. We have some stereotypes that often think that zero carbon increases economic costs and is an obstacle to our economic development, which is wrong. In 2023, China spent more than 3 trillion yuan to buy oil from the Middle East, Russia, and then we ran out. Three trillion yuan is only 2 percent of GDP5%, which contributes little to employment and the local economy. If we invest three trillion yuan in solar panels, wind turbines, energy storage batteries, and electric vehicles, that's jobs, economic growth, and happiness. Our social organizations should disseminate these correct messages throughout society and guide local governments to move in the right direction in the low-carbon transition such as renewable energy.
Chai Qimin, Director of the Strategy Department of the Climate Strategy Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, then shared the inventory of local policy actions and core participating institutions under the dual carbon goals. Chai Qimin said that the participation of civil society organizations in local dual carbon governance is a very interesting topic, as we know, China has already set our carbon emission targets a few years ago and set several milestones for the future. Awareness and action not only of the business community, but of society as a whole are very important for us to achieve this transformation. Since 2007, we have announced our first national climate change plan. Now every five years, we set new goals and policies and regulations. For carbon peaking, China has actually established a package of policy frameworks that provide bottom-up innovation for different industries and regions. As we know, from the east coast to the central and western regions, China's development levels vary greatly, resources are different, and low-carbon development paths are also different. For example, Shanxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanghai and other places have announced near-zero or net-zero carbon emission pilots, and other cities have also issued more and more policies, and new mechanisms have also provided incentives, which have brought a series of new opportunities and growth points such as new jobs, clean air, energy security, international leadership, etc., and such new growth stories are being passed from one city to another. And in this process, citizen participation is very important, and we can see that many non-** organizations play an important role and are supported from different levels. For example, the low-carbon breakthrough plan launched by the All-China Environment Federation pays more attention to the emission reduction of consumers and emerging industries in addition to heavy industry and energy-intensive industries, which is a very interesting exploration and an effective supplement to the current policy, reflecting the important role of non-governmental organizations in dual carbon governance.
Afterwards, Angelica Shamerina, Chief Climate Change Technical Advisor of the Management Team of the Global Environment Microgrants Program of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Huang Wei, Senior Program Director of Strategic Communications at the Energy Council, respectively shared their thoughts on supporting civil society organizations to carry out local climate projects. Since the 1992 Rio summit, GEF has been implemented in 127 countries around the world for nearly 30 years, and many of the funded projects focus on key landscapes, such as buffer zones, national parks or areas inhabited by indigenous peoples, or other high-priority landscapes, Angelica Shamerina said. For local cities and communities, local projects by civil society organizations play a very important role, providing a variety of innovative solutions tailored to the characteristics of local communities. Overall, climate action by civil society organizations reconciles various stakeholders and intervenes in behaviors that are detrimental to climate change. Without such concerted action by civil society organizations at the grass-roots level, sustainable development will be a dead letter. She then shared a number of excellent projects that GEF has funded in China, covering issues such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, and ending plastic pollution.
Huang Wei said that the goal of carbon neutrality has become the background color of China's development and prosperity. Research by the Energy Council shows that achieving carbon neutrality will require a shift to more sustainable demand and consumption patterns across all sectors of society, including the public. The shift in public low-carbon behaviour has huge potential for carbon reduction and influence on industry transformation. China's civil society organizations understand local realities and can help provide local solutions on the path to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, act as a bridge to facilitate dialogue between enterprises and the public, and promote communication and education for civil society and industry. In the past few years, the Energy Association has been honored to support the All-China Environment Federation (ACEF) in carrying out funding projects such as Benefiting Low Carbon to help civil society organizations systematically and strategically participate in local climate change work, and to support a number of excellent practice cases.
Subsequently, Liu Jun, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, and Yuan Jin, head of the Shanxi Kecheng Environmental Research Institute, shared their views on local policies and the practice of non-governmental organizations. Deputy Director Liu Jun said that Shanxi Province has achieved remarkable results in comprehensively and deeply carrying out the low-carbon transformation of resource-based cities by promoting the transformation of industrial and energy structures, deepening the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and making every effort to promote green and low-carbon national actions. Since the establishment of the provincial carbon inclusive promotion platform, 4.2 million people in the province have been driven to participate in carbon emission reduction at the consumer end, and the emission reduction has reached 1020,000 tons.
Yuan Jin shared his thoughts and ideas on carrying out low-carbon transition political and social cooperation in Shanxi, a major coal province, from the perspective of non-governmental organizations, and said that in the process of transformation of a resource-based city like Shanxi, it is more necessary to have an inclusive and open organization and pay more attention to communication, and through scientific analysis and research, targeted policy advocacy and public mobilization, local problems can be systematically solved. At the same time, he also said that as a local non-governmental organization, there are still problems such as poor financial sustainability, weak ability to attract talents, and insufficient participation of local stakeholders, which need to be solved by the joint efforts of all parties to form a joint force for local low-carbon development.
The final part of the side event was a roundtable discussion on the theme of "Multi-party Cooperation to Help NGOs Participate in the Implementation of Local Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Goals". The session was moderated by Ni Yao, Deputy Director of the International Department of the All-China Environment Federation, and featured in-depth discussions on the topic by Ning Yan, Director of the Climate Change Division of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, Wang Jiajia, Deputy Director of the Public Welfare Project Department of the All-China Environment Federation, Zhang Ruiying, Executive Director of the China Environmental Funders Network, Liu Jinmei, Director General of Friends of Nature, and Liu Wei, Deputy General Manager of ESG of Alibaba Group. From the perspectives of enterprises, funding agencies, platform NGOs, and practical NGOs, they shared their views and experiences on the participation of NGOs in dual-carbon governance, and shared the power points of NGOs participating in local dual-carbon governance in the future. The speakers agreed that non-governmental organizations are an indispensable force in the process of in-depth local development of dual carbon governance, and policy, financial and technical support is indispensable in this process. In addition, in the process of giving full play to the power of non-governmental organizations to participate in local dual carbon governance, we should also fully consider issues such as gender equality, just transition, and coordination of multiple environmental issues, so as to maximize the efficiency and quality of local low-carbon transformation.