Low Carbon City Initiative in China

Business Engagement

Climate Change Post-Kyoto Negotiations

“20 ways to 20%”

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The less mitigation we do now, the greater the difficulty of continuing to adapt in future.¯¯Stern Review

  • Over the last 100 years, the earth has warmed 0.74°C.
  • Arctic temperatures increased at almost twice the global average, and the Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 3% per 10 years.
  • Significant drying trends have been observed in the Sahel, Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia.
  • The tropics and subtropics have experienced more intense and longer droughts since the 1970s.
  • Extreme weather, including heavy precipitation events and heat waves, has increased in frequency, and tropical cyclones have increased in intensity.
  • The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is at the highest rate since 65 million years. It’s 35% higher than pre-industrial time.
    • According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is happening, and it is 90% likely that humans have caused most of the observed increase in global temperatures. Numerous independent studies have shown that humans have to keep this temperature increase well below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the disastrous impacts of global warming on the people, nature and the global economy.

    For now, there is still sufficient time to stop the worst effects of climate change, however only if the necessary decisions are made within the next five years.

  • Urgency: Within five years, measures must be in place to drive the urgent development and deployment of low carbon technologies. Delays make the mitigation increasingly difficult and costly, and the risks of failure more perilous.
  • Global effort: If the worst threats of climate change are to be avoided, all countries must shoulder the challenges identified here, although each nation has different circumstances, responsibilities, and priorities in addressing these issues.
  • Leadership: Action is needed by governments of all over the world to agree upon targets, to collaborate in effective strategies, and to influence and co-ordinate the necessary investments.
    • Despite the fact that the Kyoto Protocol does not require mandatory reduction targets for developing countries, as a responsible country with a large population and rapidly developing economy, China also needs to actively participate in international cooperation on mitigation and adaptation actions. In China, the continuous retreat of glaciers in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, increasing water crisis, growing loss of economy and life caused by more frequent droughts and floods, etc., are always reminding us the necessity of early actions to deal with climate change.

    To this end, WWF China Climate Change and Energy Programme will facilitate the development and implementation of Chinese national policies to follow a development path that decouples economic development from energy intensity, through raising public and policy makers' awareness of climate change, increasing the resistance and resilience of key ecoregions and the areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, partnering with business enterprises to encourage the investment in low carbon technology development and application, and advocating sustainable production and consumption.