Climate change & energy

Working with developing countries - China

How we are working with China

 

UK-China climate change working group

An agreement to establish a UK-China climate change working group was signed on 13 September 2006 by Environment Secretary David Miliband and the Chinese Minister for National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai.

The working group will enable progress to be made on key issues. It will help feed into and shape discussions and activities under the Gleneagles Dialogue, the EU-China Partnership on Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Among the issues to be discussed by the working group are:

  • Scientific collaboration on climate change through phase two of the joint study on impacts and adaptation on Chinese agriculture, which runs until 2008.
  • Policy and market-mechanisms for promoting energy efficiency through the Renewable Energy and Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)
  • Policy dialogue on possible forms of long-term cooperative action on climate change, including the proposal raised at the Gleneagles Summit last year by China and other major emerging economies for a “new paradigm” for international technology cooperation.
  • The economics of climate change, including in due course discussions on the publication of the Stern Review into the international economics of climate change.
  • Development of the EU-China cooperation on near-zero Emissions power generation technology through carbon capture and storage, based on the ongoing work of the near-zero emissions coal initiative signed with China in 2005.

The near-Zero Emissions Coal (nZEC) Project

As a key element of the EU-China Partnership, signed in Beijing on 5th September 2005, the UK is supporting a new initiative on near-Zero Emissions Coal with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to address the challenge of tackling increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of coal in China. This is in recognition that carbon dioxide emissions from China’s increasing coal use are set to double to more than 5000Mt CO2/year by 2030.

The Near Zero Emissions Coal Initiative (NZEC) will initially involve an 18-month work programme to help build capacity for carbon capture and storage technology in China, build stronger links between Chinese and European experts and study a range of options for demonstrating carbon capture and storage in coal-fired power generation in China.

Carbon Capture and Storage offers the opportunity to reduce emissions per unit of electricity by 85 - 90%. “Near Zero Emissions Coal” and large-scale deployment of CCS in China could halve projected emissions by 2030.

A project website has been developed which contains background information about the project and its partners and can be found at www.nzec.info

Background: EU-China Summit (5 September 2005, Beijing)

The EU-China Summit saw the announcement of an EU-China Partnership on Climate Change. The Partnership intends to intensify cooperation on climate change between the EU and China, and focuses on concrete, practical measures to bring forward the development of low carbon technologies. It complements the Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development, as well as other outcomes of the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in July 2005. The Partnership aims to achieve the following by 2020:

  • To significantly reduce the cost of key energy technologies, promoting their distribution and operation.
  • To develop and demonstrate, in China and the EU, advanced near-zero emissions coal (nZEC) technology through carbon capture and storage (CCS). A centrepiece of the Partnership is collaboration to demonstrate the potential for nZEC and CCS in China.

At the Summit, the EU-China Partnership was formalised in a Joint Declaration, which set out specific areas of cooperation.

Further information on the EU website.

Investigating the impacts of climate change on Chinese agriculture

As part of the DFID Country Assistance Action Plan 2006-2011, Defra led a project investigating the impacts of climate change on agriculture in China. The two phases of the project are outlined below.

Phase I

A three year collaborative Defra/MOST project on the impacts of climate change project on climate change concluded in 2004.

Final outputs of Phase I included calibration of the Hadley Centre's regional climate model PRECIS for China, climate projections for the 21st century, socio-economic scenarios and national assessments of the impacts of climate change on agriculture.

Key results of Phase I included:

  • An average temperature increase in China by the end of the 21st century of between 3 and 4°C - rice, maize and wheat yields could fall by 0-36.8% in the next 20-80 years
  • CO2 fertilisation could reduce or even reverse this reduction but to what extent is uncertain.
Phase II

The second phase of the bilateral collaboration between China and the UK on climate change and agriculture was launched on 2 September 2005 in Beijing. Phase II will build on the work done in Phase I and consist of national and regional components.

The national component will examine the impacts of climate change on agriculture, taking into account availability of water resources and socio-economic developments, and will re-assess the impact of CO2 fertilisation on crop yields.

At the regional level a scoping study will be undertaken to assess the impacts of climate change on agriculture taking account of water resources and socio-economic change at the regional level, with a view to identifying effects on society, those most at risk from climate change (such as poorest population groups) and possible adaptation measures. Stakeholder involvement will be an important element of the regional study, both in terms of defining the questions to be addressed and in guiding the course of the work.

Funding of £150k/yr for 3 years.

Page last modified: 4 December 2007
Page published: 13 September 2004

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs