Global Climate Governance

Climate change has become a prominent challenge for the international community and would have profound implications for the future development of humankind. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(1992) laid a sound framework for international cooperation on climate change, and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) made greenhouse gas emission reduction a legal obligation for developed countries. Paris Agreement (2015) has further advanced the process of action and cooperation on NDC of all countries in the world. The Paris Agreement proposed the goal of“holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”Once again, it pushes the world towards a green and low-carbon transition. Global climate change is a major challenge faced by the international community. It is a basic consensus that all countries should work to address the climate change challenge through cooperation and dialogue and take decisive steps. 

China has been actively promoting global climate governance, demonstrating its responsibility as a major developing country. President Xi Jinping made an important statement at the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 22 September 2020, announcing that China will scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures, and aim to have CO₂ emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. As a responsible country, China has actively promoted the building of a fair, reasonable and win-win global climate governance system, and contributed Chinese wisdom and strength to tackle climate change. China has proposed the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality target, which will lead the world to achieve green and low-carbon recovery and lead the direction of global economic and technological transformation. This is of great significance to protecting the earth's ecology and advancing cooperative actions against climate change.

Focusing on the framework and cooperation mechanisms of global climate change governance and how China can play a greater leading role in global climate change governance and cooperation, Tsinghua-CTG Joint Center for Climate Governance and Low-carbon Transformation will summarize the formation and evolution of global climate change governance framework, and analyze and interpret the scientific support and political consensus in the formation of framework mechanisms. In order to better play the positive role of universities and state-owned enterprises in serving the country in participating in global climate governance and scientifically realizing the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal, the center will provide scientific support for China's participation in global climate governance, and make planning and implementation recommendations for China's response to climate change, as well as summarize and analyze China's plans and practices under global climate governance.

Links to related policy documents: