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Chinese Cities Commit to the Paris Agreement

Beijing, China (2 April 2019) — Nanjing, Chengdu, and Qingdao today publicly confirmed their commitment to deliver on their share of the Paris Agreement. They become the first Chinese cities to join a coalition of over 70 C40 cities from across the globe committed to the bold climate action needed to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This announcement was made at the C40 China Regional Forum, where representatives from C40 Chinese member cities and the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs convened to show their commitment to action on climate change. The C40 Member cities in China are, Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Zhenjiang.

The Forum also saw the launch of the C40 Climate Action Planning China Programme to support the ambitions of C40 Chinese member cities. This Programme will build capacity in Chinese cities to develop integrated and inclusive climate action plans that address the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and deliver wider social, environmental and economic benefits. The technical assistance programme was kicked off with a Climate Action Planning Regional Academy for C40 Chinese cities to share a common framework and best practices for climate action planning. C40’s Climate Action Planning China Programme is made possible through the generous support of the UK and Danish Governments.

Qingbao Niu, Deputy Mayor of Chengdu:
“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind and cities will play an important role in tackling it. Cities and citizens around the world are under threat of climate change. We have to take actions now and we need a good plan for good actions. The City of Chengdu has always attached great importance to climate change. By joining the C40 Climate Action Planning China Programme we will continue to focus on green and low-carbon development.”

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group applauded this leadership from Chinese cities:

Raymond Johansen, Governing Mayor of Oslo, said:
“Oslo was proud to be one of the first cities in the world with a climate action plan delivering the ambition of the Paris Agreement, and we congratulate Chinese cities on this step. I invite Chinese officials to visit Oslo for further co-operation as they develop their plan.”

Mark Watts, C40 Cities, Executive Director, said:
“Chinese cities are showing the world that modern urban planning means climate action planning. China already leads the way on solar energy generation and electric public transport deployment, and I’m confident this will continue in new areas like ultra-efficient buildings. Actions like these bring citizens cleaner air, new economic opportunities and a safer future.”

Energy consumed by buildings account for 25% of China’s national GHG emissions and as such this topic area formed a central discussion point for leaders at the Forum. With C40 supporting four Chinese cities on policies to decarbonise their building sector through the C40 China Buildings Programme, the importance of city action on construction was highlighted. Already 63% of China’s building stock lies in cities, and this is predicted to reach 80% by 2050, whilst between 2001 and 2016 the equivalent of 53 times New York’s floor space was built as processes of rapid urbanisation continue to add 2 billion square metres of floor space annually.

Yu Binyang, Director General, The Center of Science and Technology of Industrialization Development (CSTID), MoHURD, said:
“Buildings are an important sector in dealing with climate change. Chinese cities are actively responding to climate change by accelerating the green development of urban construction, the high-quality development of green buildings, as well as the transformation and upgrading of construction industries. Specific actions and practices for climate change are constantly being explored through urban planning, architectural practice, and industrial techniques. In these respects, Chinese cities are able to collaborate with C40 international cities through the "China Building Programme", learn from each other, share experiences, and jointly shoulder the historical responsibility of coping with climate change”