Beijing: China today defended its decision to reject the clause “phasing out” and favoured “phase down” of coal-fired power at COP26, and claimed the varying national conditions, development stage and resources endowment of different countries should be respected.
The COP26 President Alok Sharma had on Sunday November 14, 2021 said that China and India should explain to developing nations why they watered down language on efforts to phase out coals at COP26.
Chinese foreign minstry spokesperson Zhao Lijian explained that in many developing countries, not everyone has access to electricity and energy supply is not adequate. “Before asking all countries to stop using coal, consideration should be given to the energy shortfall in these countries to ensure their energy security,” he said.
He added: “We encourage developed countries to take the lead in stopping using coal while providing ample funding, technological and capacity-building support for developing countries’ energy transition. We need concrete actions more than slogans.”
While acknowledging that green and low-carbon transition is the overwhelming trend that all countries should work together for, he though said that to optimize energy structure and reduce the proportion of coal consumption “is an incremental process”.
Lijian though reiterated that China attaches high importance to energy transition. “We have made tremendous efforts in controlling coal consumption and coal-fired projects and played an important role in building international consensus on relevant issues,” he said.
China further pointed out that since the beginning of this year, President Xi Jinping had announced to the international community a host of policy measures China had adopted, including “to strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, to strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five-Year Plan period and phase it down in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, to vigorously support developing countries’ green and low-carbon energy development, and to stop building new coal-fired power projects abroad”.
Lijian claimed the international community had spoken highly of this. The recently-released China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s reiterated relevant content, he added.
– global bihari bureau
