Europe insists the rise in coal use is barely temporary and may have no long-term effects on targets to chop gas emissions in half.
China has accused some European nations of a “backswing” within the implementation of urgent climate change goals as geopolitical turmoil grips the continent.
Xie Zhenhua, who leads China’s climate negotiations, told Germany’s Special Climate Envoy Jennifer Morgan that global climate governance was currently facing “multiple challenges and uncertainties”.
“The climate policies of some European countries have shown a backswing, and it’s hoped that that is just a brief stopgap,” he said, based on a summary of the meeting released by China’s environment ministry.
As Western countries raise coal consumption so as to offset gas supply disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine, China’s foreign ministry said in a press release this month its own green and low-carbon development path remained firm – “in contrast with the European Union”.
Europe has insisted the rise in coal use is barely a brief measure that may have no long-term effect on the EU goal to chop greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent from 1990 to 2030.
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is predicted to give attention to the problem of financing at this 12 months’s global UN climate talks, often known as COP27, which takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in November.
Xie told Morgan that “implementation and motion” needs to be the central theme of the meeting, and said he hoped industrialised countries would quickly meet their pledge under the Paris Agreement to transfer $100bn a 12 months in climate funds to developing nations.
After the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August, China cancelled bilateral talks on climate with the USA, raising concerns geopolitical tensions could undermine the battle against global warming.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday that each one parties needed to construct a “good political atmosphere” ahead of COP27 and “abandon unilateralism, geopolitical games and green barriers”, based on a press release on the foreign ministry website.
