On November 2, the "Global Action Initiative 2021—Climate Change" climate week special event hosted by CGTN was launched. Ambassador Qin Gang attended the opening ceremony online and had a dialogue with Chinese and American students. He answered questions on climate change raised by students from New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Beijing Normal University. Here is the full text: 

1、What have Chinese leaders done to address climate change? How does the Chinese government reduce automobile pollution and mitigate climate change? (Students from New York and San Francisco)

Ambassador Qin Gang: Chinese leaders attach great importance to climate change. As early as 16 years ago, President Xi Jinping famously said, "Green mountains are gold mountains and silver mountains". In September last year, President Xi announced that China aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Recently, China introduced a Working Guidance and an Action Plan in this field. This fully demonstrates China's commitment to addressing climate change as a major country, and our strategic determination to pursue green, low-carbon and circular development. President Xi gave a comprehensive and systematic account of the vision of building a “Community of life for man and Nature” at the Leaders Summit on Climate last April, contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to climate change and environmental governance. At the COP15 recently held in Kunming, Yunnan, President Xi called for working together to build a community of all life on earth. Giant panda, which is people’s favorite in many countries, has been downgraded from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction, and its number in the wild has grown from more than 1,100 to over 1,800 now. As we speak, the COP26 is taking place in Glasgow. At the summit, President Xi called upon all parties to uphold multilateral consensus, focus on concrete actions and accelerate green transition, in our united action to tackle climate change and protect the planet, our shared home.

Speaking of human impact on climate, many people would think of vehicle emission. China has been making hard efforts to reduce vehicle emissions and encouraging green transport, and such efforts have paid off. China’s Stage VI vehicle emission standards implemented in most of the country are one of the most stringent in the world, stricter than those in the United States. In other words, many cars running on American streets right now are prohibited in China.

At the same time, China's industry of new energy vehicles (NEV) has developed tremendously, with a total of 6 million new energy vehicles. That is to say, half of the world's new energy vehicles are running on the streets of China. China has built 1.87 million charging piles and a fast charging network covering 176 cities and more than 50,000 kilometers, so that those vehicles can really go far and wide, without hassle. It only took Tesla one year to build its first super factory outside the US in Shanghai, with an annual output of 450,000 vehicles. Last month, the number of Tesla's supercharger in China exceeded 1,000. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, said, “I really think China is the future.”

The Chinese government also encourages people to go green in transport. We implement a policy to limit vehicle traffic based on the end-number of license plates. In Beijing, nearly one-fifth of the vehicles cannot go on public road on a working day, and people can choose to carpool or take the subway. The past few years have seen an explosive growth of shared bicycles in China. Take out your phone, scan the QR code, and you have the most trendy, convenient, and green means of transport in a few seconds.

There are now less than 100 days to go before the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be the first Olympics in history to use all green and clean energy. We have made full use of the venues and facilities of the 2008 Summer Games, and adopted ice making technology with almost zero emissions to turn the “Water Cube” into an “Ice Cube”. Green will be the most prominent color of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

2、What are the common and differentiated responsibilities of China and the United States in climate change？Renewable energy is developing rapidly in both countries. Based on their current development levels, do you think it is possible for them to achieve their carbon neutrality goals? What plans does China have to cooperate with the United States to jointly address climate change? Do you think the United States is collaborating with China on climate change issues? (Students from Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC)

Ambassador Qin Gang: Addressing climate change is the shared mission of all countries, but developed and developing countries have different responsibilities. A cartoon vividly describes this scenario: a lanky man in ragged clothes is cooking over firewood. A person who drives a large-displacement luxury car points to him and says, “What an enormous carbon emission. Your cooking is causing global warming.” I think we must take an objective and scientific approach to emission reduction responsibilities. Development is the right of everyone in every country. Developing countries need to develop their economies and improve people’s livelihoods. Their people have the right to live the same lives as people in New York, San Francisco or Washington. On climate change, they deserve more understanding and support from developed countries. We cannot ask a man who barely has enough to eat to go on a diet and lose weight. While considering the needs of development for the current stage, we also need to look back into history. From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century to 1950, developed countries emitted 95% of the total carbon dioxide; from 1950 to 2000, they still accounted for 77% of the total emissions. That’s why developed countries should shoulder more responsibilities on climate change and fulfill their promise of providing financial and technological support to developing countries.

As main actors on climate change, both China and the United States should first rely on themselves to fulfill their nationally determined contributions. This is just like students from different grades will have different test questions, but both countries should answer their own test papers well. At the same time, what matters in the test of climate change is the total scores of all students, not the score of just one student. Tackling climate change requires persistent efforts. Countries should have long-term and stable policies. The United States is a top student, but it also has a record of skipping classes and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. If it wants to score high in future tests, it should not skip classes, or hand in its homework late any more.

China will strive to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Moving from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality takes the United States 43 years. But China has set a target of 30 years, which means that it will experience the world's most intensive carbon emission reduction. To achieve this goal, as a developing country, China needs to pay greater prices and efforts than the United States. We have closed and will continue to close energy-intensive, high-emission factories. For example, between 2016 and 2019, China reduced its steel production capacity by more than 150 million tons, at the price of 280,000 steel jobs, which exceeds the total number of jobs in the steel industry in the United States, the EU and Japan combined. But still, we will honor our promises with real actions.

In terms of fulfilling its commitments and targets, China ’s carbon emission intensity in 2020 dropped by 18.8% from the 2015 level and 48.4% from the 2005 level. This means that cumulatively, China avoided about 5.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. By the end of 2020, China had 220 million hectares of forest and over 9.1 billion tons of forest carbon reserves. We have also formulated a detailed roadmap towards carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and we are vigorously developing clean and renewable energy while reducing coal use. By 2025, the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption will reach around 20%, while carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will drop by 18% compared with the 2020 level, laying a solid foundation for carbon dioxide peaking.

Addressing climate change requires close cooperation among countries, including China and the United States. We have issued a Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis, reiterating that we will strengthen cooperation, jointly contribute to the global response to climate change, and work together to keep the global temperature rise below 2°C and strive to limit it to 1.5°C. We are also working together for a successful COP26. Chinese and American scientists can carry out joint research in low carbon technology, green energy and other fields. The two sides established a Clean Energy Research Center before, and we have huge potential for cooperation in electric vehicles, renewable energy, green finance, and digital economy. For example, China has a complete industrial chain in equipment manufacturing for wind power and PV power generation, and its output of PV cells and modules ranks first in the world. These are areas where our two sides can effectively cooperate. We can also jointly help those countries that are vulnerable to climate impact, and carry out third-party cooperation to improve their capability against climate change.

Climate change is a highlight of China-US cooperation that leads the direction of global efforts. We hope that our two countries will take the COP26 as an opportunity, bear in mind the interests of all mankind, rise above the “political microclimate” that hinders our cooperation, and lead global efforts to counter the warming “global climate”.

3、Apart from the cooperation between the two governments, is there a way for the whole society, especially the younger generation, to participate widely in tackling climate change? Can the exchanges and cooperation between young Chinese and American students be strengthened? What are you doing to raise awareness of the youth on this issue? (Students from Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and New York)

Ambassador Qin Gang: Climate change is a common challenge for all mankind. It has caused many natural disasters around the world. What will our future look like? Is it scorched earth, cyberpunk or space pastoral? Will climate change bring a disruptive impact on future life? The answer depends on the choices and efforts of each of us, especially the younger generation.

Young people are involved in and benefit from the efforts to counter climate change. You should also advocate for and lead in building an ecological civilization. Your climate awareness and behavior patterns will shape the future climate footprint. Your lifestyle will profoundly affect the future of generations to come, and your concern and willingness to act will herald the hope for a global low-carbon transition.

I see that more and more young people in China and America regard the “low-carbon youth” as the new “cool” and new “fashion”. Shared bicycles, electric scooters, shared power banks, online tree planting campaign are becoming part of your daily life. We Chinese often say, “Do not leave a good undone because it is a small good.” You can all start to act from small things, from yourselves and from your daily life. For example, you can choose green commuting. Less driving, more carpooling, and more cycling. You can also buy small-displacement cars or new energy vehicles. The United States has pledged that 50% of its car sales by 2030 will be electric vehicles. I hope that American young people will do your part to make it more than that. In addition, you can also start from finishing your meal and reducing waste. Remember to turn off the lights when you leave home or office, and set your air conditioner one degree higher in summer. If everyone can pitch in and influence the people around you, it will reduce a lot of burden on the planet. In the final analysis, green and low-carbon development depends on technological innovation. You can further explore these fields and work on innovation of technologies. Young people can also be very important in social oversight to push the governments to protect the environment and fulfill emission reduction commitments.

Chinese and American youths should strengthen communication and exchanges. Last month, Tsinghua University co-organized a Sino-American Youth Dialogue on “Making Carbon Neutral, Youth in Action”. The Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, initiated by Tsinghua, organized the Global Youth Summit on Net-zero Future. Both were very good platforms for youth dialogue on climate, and 15 world-class universities from nine countries in six continents participated. I hope that young people around the world can all join in such efforts, advocate for and shape a green lifestyle, so that everyone can do his or her part. I myself and the Chinese Embassy in the US will support and help Chinese and American youths to have more communication.

Each generation surpasses the preceding one. I believe that the talents, dedication and hard work of the young generation will converge into a tremendous force to protect our shared home on Earth, and deliver a bright future of the world!