China plays an indispensable role in promoting global climate finance, said participants at a forum of the Global Climate Action Summit 2018 held recently, the official Weibo account of China News Agency reported.
The summit was co-hosted by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the government of California, the International Finance Forum, China News Agency, and the Energy Foundation (EF) from Sept 12-14.
Climate finance is one of the most important ways to tackle global climate change, said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Developed countries pledged to offer $100 billion a year to developing countries to respond to climate change before 2020, but it is far from complete, she noted, adding that the countries should adopt a variety of methods to fulfill their promise.
The executive secretary stressed that China’s efforts in climate finance have already achieved great results.
Former US Vice-President Al Gore also pointed out that China is a global leader in renewable energy investment and financing, with its investment accounting for nearly 40 percent of the world’s total clean energy investment and finance in 2017.
China is now the biggest force in global clean energy development, said a report on the investment of Chinese companies and investors in low-carbon projects overseas, released by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
China’s experience in responding to climate change is well recognized by all participants.
The country has launched a low-carbon pilot in select cities and provinces and developed low-carbon development plans to promote low-carbon lifestyles and consumption patterns in order to help tackle global climate change.
Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, praised China’s efforts, saying the Chinese government worked on plans for sustainable development in these pilot cities, and mobilized enterprises to engage in the construction, setting an example for other countries.
China also actively carries out research and investment in new energy technologies and has achieved remarkable results thus far.
Statistics indicate that China contributed almost half of global solar power generation in 2016, and 60 percent of the world’s solar cells produced in the same year were from Chinese factories.
In addition, China’s development momentum in green financing also attracted wide attention.
China has made significant progress in green financing as a global leader in the sector, Liu Shuang, director of the low-carbon transition program of EF noted, adding that given challenges brought by global climate change, the country needs to mobilize more capital in climate investment.
