China appreciates and supports UN Secretary-General Guterres's initiative to hold the UN Climate Action Summit.

China has always attached great importance to addressing climate change. Upholding a national strategy of attaching equal importance to mitigation and adaptation, China has regarded addressing climate change as a great opportunity to achieve high-quality economic development and promote ecological progress. China will continue, as always, to firmly implement the Paris Agreement, fully honor its commitments, promote the establishment of an equitable, rational, and win-win global climate governance mechanism, and work with others to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

China firmly upholds multilateralism and has always been an active participant in and defender of the multilateral efforts to address climate change. China takes the position that all parties should earnestly implement the principles and spirit of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, including the principles of equitable, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances, and execute the institutional arrangement of nationally determined contributions. In particular, the developed countries should implement and strengthen their commitments to providing financial and technological assistance to developing countries, opening markets and carrying out practical technological cooperation, thus creating the basis for mutual trust and important conditions for comprehensive and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement.

As a co-lead of the Nature-Based Solution, China is ready to work together with all parties to help bring about positive outcomes at this Summit, thus injecting robust political impetus into international cooperation on addressing climate change and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

1. Nature-Based Solutions

Man and nature form a community of life. Human beings must respect nature, follow its ways, and protect it. As a co-lead of NBS, China actively pushes for all parties to systematically understand the relationship between human beings and nature, fully recognize the ecological value of earth on which human beings live, rely on natural forces to deal with the risks posed by climate change, and foster a low-emission and climate-resilient society.

China has actively promoted efforts to address climate change in the areas of biodiversity, forestry and grassland, agriculture, oceans and water resources. With regard to biodiversity, ecological red lines are identified to effectively protect biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change. In the context of forestry and grassland, we have made solid progress in the nation-wide land greening campaign, and have increased forest, grassland and wetland resources, and enhanced the ecosystem’s functions; we have also comprehensively strengthened the conservation of resources, enhanced the prevention and control of disasters, and made concerted efforts to increase carbon sinks. In agriculture, the use of chemical fertilizers has achieved negative growth ahead of schedule, the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock and poultry waste and straws has increased significantly, and biomass energy has developed rapidly. With regard to oceans, we have organized monitoring and assessment on sea level rise, supported blue carbon researches and pilot projects, and carried out marine ecosystems restoration. In the field of water resources, measures for climate change adaptation include improving the flood control, drought relief and disaster mitigation system, optimizing water resources allocation, strengthening the building of a water-saving society, and comprehensively implementing the River&Lake Chief System.

China expects all parties to actively support the work in the field of the NBS, participate in the establishment of a Group of Friends for NBS, promote the incorporation of the NBS into the "Global Biodiversity Framework 2020", give full consideration to the potential of natural system in facilitating mitigation and adaptation while making policy decisions on climate change, and take practical actions in the related areas to deepen international and regional cooperation.

2. Social & Political Drivers

Advancing ecological progress is vital for the sustained development of the Chinese nation. China has made important contributions in the area of climate change by upholding the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, implementing the basic national policy of protecting the environment, adopting the holistic approach of conserving the mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands as well as the strictest systems for ecological and environmental protection.

China has proposed the Climate Action Targets for 2020 and 2030, implemented China’s National Plan on Climate Change (2014-2020), stepped up efforts to establish a legal and policy framework that promotes green production and consumption, fostered a sound economic structure that facilitates green, low-carbon, and circular development, established regulatory agencies to manage state-owned natural resource assets and monitor natural ecosystems, and established an environmental and climate governance system in which government takes the lead, enterprises assume main responsibility, and social organizations and the public also participate. China actively fulfills the commitments on emissions reduction and strengthens climate adaptation.

When formulating, implementing and assessing climate change policies, programs and projects, China takes the needs, aspirations and roles of women into full consideration, attaches great importance to increasing their voice and encourages their full and equal participation. China continues the campaign to prevent and control air pollution and make our skies blue again. China also carries out the mechanisms of impacts and adaptation of climate change on human health, strengthens the prevention and control of diseases that are closely related to climate change and enhances health emergency protection on climate change. Efforts have been made to relocate employees in the steel and coal industry. Since 2016, more than 1.2 million employees in this industry laid off due to overcapacity have been properly relocated.

China is willing to work with all parties to strengthen policy support and social policy incentives, strengthen global action to address climate change, and play a positive role in promoting the comprehensive and effective implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

(This English version is for your reference only. In case any discrepancy exists between the Chinese and English context, the Chinese version shall prevail.)

(To be continued)