STATEMENT BY CHINA ON BEHALF OF BASIC AT THE
OPENING SESSION OF COP21/CMP11
PARIS, FRANCE
1 DECEMBER 2015
China has the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the BASIC
countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). We fully associate
ourselves with the statement made by South Africa on behalf of the Group of
77 and China.
We would like to congratulate His Excellency, Minister Laurent Fabius, on
his election as President of the Paris Climate Change Conference.
Mr. President, we wish to express our full support to the Presidency for
achieving a successful outcome in Paris through an open, transparent,
inclusive and party-driven process. We are committed to work
constructively and pragmatically with other Parities on all issues to reach an
equitable, ambitious, comprehensive and balanced agreement under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that enhances
the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention in the
post-2020 period, in order to achieve the objective of the Convention as set
out in its Article 2.
Mr. President, we are of the firm view that the Paris agreement shall be in
full accordance with all principles and provisions of the Convention, in
particular the principles of equity and common but differentiated
responsibilities and respective capabilities. We believe that the ambition and
effectiveness of the agreement will be achieved through the implementation
of the Convention in the post-2020 period and by maintaining differentiation
among developed and developing country Parties in each element of the
agreement.
We affirm that the Paris agreement shall address in a balanced manner all six
elements identified in the Durban mandate – mitigation, adaptation, finance,
capacity-building, technology development and transfer, transparency of
action and support, with a view to ensure equal importance of adaptation and
mitigation, as well as comparable contribution of action and support.
Mr. President, we reiterate that developed countries must continue to take
the lead in the post-2020 period, by committing and implementing ambitious,
economy-wide, absolute quantified emission reduction targets, as well as
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progressively and substantially scaling up their finance, technology and
capacity-building support to developing countries for their ambitious
mitigation and adaptation actions under the Paris agreement, with existing
commitments as a starting point.
Regarding the pre-2020 ambition, we note with concern that pre-2020
ambition gaps exist not only in mitigation, but also in adaptation, finance,
technology and capacity-building support to developing countries. It is
important that our developed country partners to honor and fulfill existing
commitment and obligations and to raise the ambition significantly as
required by science and equity. We urge developed countries to provide new,
additional, predictable and adequate financial resources to developing
countries in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner, in particular
defining a clear roadmap and pathway towards achieving their goal of
providing USD 100 billion per year by 2020. We call for a strong,
comprehensive and meaningful decision on pre-2020 ambition in Paris with
a view to laying a solid foundation for post-2020 enhanced action.
Mr. President, with regard to the CMP of the Kyoto Protocol:
We believe the Kyoto Protocol is a very important step and instrument to
implement the Convention: a legally binding, rules-based, developed and
developing countries cooperative system that embodies the principle of
equity, CBDR&RC. Now we are in Paris to negotiate 2015 agreement to
enhance the implementation of the Convention after 2020. We think the
successful aspects of the Kyoto Protocol, such as the adherence of the
principle equity, CBDR & RC, the cooperative mechanism between
developed and developing country parties, etc, should be reflected in the
Paris Agreement. No matter what agreement we shall achieve in Paris, we
should not undermine the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
so as to ensure the environmental integrity of the KP.
Meanwhile, we wish to express our concerns in the following three areas:
Firstly, some Annex I countries have chosen to meet their 2020 targets
outside the Kyoto framework. We would urge these countries to show their
commitment to the principles of the Convention by signing up to the second
commitment period or to make comparable reduction commitment under the
Convention. We congratulate those Annex I Parties, which remain
committed to the KP, and are participating fully in the second commitment
period.
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Secondly, we are concerned that only seven Annex I Parties have ratified the
Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol so far although three years have
elapsed after the adoption of the Doha Amendment in 2012. We urge those
Annex I Parties that have not ratified the Doha Amendment to make
additional efforts towards the ratification of the Doha Amendment so as to
implement the Doha Amendment as soon as possible.
Thirdly, we must register our disappointment at the unwillingness of the
developed country parties to increase their ambition to reduce GHG
emissions under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. We
believe that the High-Level Ministerial Roundtable in June last year did not
deliver the expected increase in the ambition. We note with concern that no
developed country Party expressed their intention to increase their
commitment in last year roundtable discussion and that the developed
country parties did not even want to discuss this matter as demonstrated in
Lima, Peru last year. We urge them to honor this commitment to increase
their ambition they made in Doha. Since commitments made by Annex I
Parties to 2020 fell significantly short of what is required by science, which
has been reconfirmed in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, we propose that
this becomes a regular process. We support the proposal made last year by
the G77 and China to set up a contact group under the CMP to consider this
matter and to ensure that a real increase in the ambition of Annex I Parties
will happen soon.
Mr. President, the BASIC countries underscore the importance of
consensus-based decisions under the UNFCCC and reaffirm our
commitments to preserve the negotiation process that is open, transparent,
inclusive and Party-driven.
Finally, we look forward to fruitful engagements by all Parties and pledge
our constructive participation in this session. We look forward to working
with you and all Parties to ensure a successful conference.
Thank you.
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