China-US unofficial exchanges on climate never interrupted: China climate envoy

Unofficial exchanges between China and the US on climate change issues were never interrupted, Xie Zhenhua, China's special climate envoy, said at a press briefing hosted by the Chinese delegation at the UN Climate Change Conference, state media Xinhua reported late Nov. 10.

China had suspended official climate dialogue with the US in August on the back of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The thawing of tensions between the two superpowers is being closely watched at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and could be vital to a final multilateral accord between nations.

When asked about whether the US had asked China to contribute to loss and damage finance to support developing countries impacted by climate-related disasters, Xie said the topic has not been breached.

"So far, no one [from the US] has brought up this subject to me. Maybe they are embarrassed to bring this up to me," he told reporters, according to Xinhua.

China is also a developing country and has suffered a lot from climate disasters in 2022 and feels the same way for other developing countries and fully supports their requests, Xie said.

He said countries are at different development phases and have different capabilities, and the fundamental rule of "common but differentiated responsibilities" under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should be consistently followed.

"This fundamental rule points to a clear answer toward how this [loss and damage] problem should be resolved," Xie said.

Xie said, as a developing country, China is willing to voluntarily help other developing countries in adapting to climate change and has already contributed Yuan 2 billion ($279 million). He said while adaptation and mitigation should have equal importance, adaptation has not received the attention it deserves in recent years and urged developed countries to realize the $100 billion of climate finance promised by developed countries.

"This promise has been made at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009. Thirteen years have passed, and it is yet to be fulfilled," Xie said, according to Xinhua. "I would like to suggest developed countries to firstly fulfill the $100-billion promise this year, and as required, come up with a clear timeline and a roadmap for subsequently increasing climate finance after 2025."

Coal versus renewables

Xie cited Xi Jinping's energy transition philosophy "establishing the new before destroying the old" at the press briefing that reaffirmed China's stance of developing renewables at full speed but phasing out coal cautiously.

Coal accounts for around 65% of China's generation mix, and, in the most likely scenario, China's coal-fired power supplies will continue to increase until 2034, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.

Xie said China has built some new coal-fired power plants, adding that these plants are crucial to ensure safe operation of the power system, and guarantee sufficient energy supplies to China's 1.4 billion population.

"These new plants are the most efficient coal-fired plants in the world," Xie said at the press conference, adding that China also retired some old plants, and the total carbon emissions did not increase.

"Currently, China's renewable power installation capacity exceeds the sum of many developed countries," Xie said.

China's solar, wind, and hydro installation capacities totaled 1,025 GW as of 2021, accounting for 43% of the nation's total generation capacities, official data showed.

In the most likely scenario, China's total supplies of solar, wind, and hydro power will further increase by 70% by 2030, and 238% by 2050, from the 2021 level, according to S&P Global data.