Senior United Nations climate official: China's energy transformation achievements are unique in the world | News Living Room

China News Service, Antalya, November 11th (Wang Gaofei, Xu Junjie, Lin Zhuowei) "China's energy transformation achievements are unique in the world." The 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) is being held in Antalya, Turkey. On the morning of November 10th, local time, the "Ecological Civilization and Beautiful China Practice" was held at the COP31 China Corner. At the side event, Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, delivered a speech, praising China’s climate actions and calling on the international community to adhere to multilateral cooperation and promote a more rapid and equitable clean energy transition.

This side event was hosted by the Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization Research Center and China News Service, and co-organized by the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and China News Network. This is the first time that China News Agency’s “News Living Room” has held a series of activities in Türkiye.

Simon Steele first thanked China for hosting this event and building a platform for climate exchanges and mutual learning among countries. He said that China has long firmly upheld multilateralism and continued to participate in the overall undertaking of the United Nations, especially the work of the United Nations in response to climate change, which has effectively promoted the advancement of global climate governance.

"China's energy transformation achievements are unique in the world." Combining his experiences from many visits to China, Steele spoke highly of China's green transformation practices.

He said that through South-South cooperation, China has helped many developing countries develop clean energy and improve climate resilience. In addition, its energy transformation not only creates domestic jobs, stimulates economic growth, and ensures energy security, but also drives global clean energy technology innovation and promotes the continued decline in the cost of renewable energy.

He specifically mentioned that China proposed to strive for better results based on the new nationally determined contribution goals. In his view, this showed ample foresight. Every step China takes in its green transformation will accelerate the global clean energy transformation, benefiting not only its own people but also the world.

Simon Steele said that thanks to international concerted action, the global temperature rise is expected to have dropped from well over 4°C to about 2.6°C, and climate adaptation issues have also moved from the margins of the agenda to the mainstream, and a global energy revolution is accelerating.

But he also emphasized that the global clean energy transformation still needs to be further accelerated and fairness must be taken into consideration. No country can cope with the climate crisis alone. Countries should continue to communicate and learn from each other, and transform dialogue consensus into pragmatic cooperation.

In his view, countries have different national conditions and transformation paths with unique characteristics, but the goals are the same. In the face of increasingly severe climate risks, global climate action should adhere to the principles of "common but differentiated responsibilities" and "respective capabilities" and build greater synergy on the basis of mutual respect and understanding.