On December 5, Energy Foundation China (EF China) hosted another edition of the expert meeting series of the Special Policy Study of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) on the Pathway to Carbon Neutrality and China’s Role in Global Climate Governance in Dubai, as part of the EF China COP28 Pavilion themed “Enhancing Ambition Through Implementation.” Focusing on the opportunities for and challenges of global climate action in the context of multiple crises, participants of this meeting discussed how to synergize climate mitigation, energy transition, and economic growth through accelerating the deployment of renewable energy, and how to strengthen international climate cooperation, green trade, and supply chain resilience to bridge the gap between climate actions and ambitions globally.

This meeting gathered energy, climate, development, and finance experts from more than 30 international organizations and think tanks across over ten countries. Zou Ji, CCICED Special Advisor, International Co-Lead of CCICED Climate Special Policy Study, and CEO and President of EF China; Laurence Tubiana, CCICED Member and CEO of the European Climate Foundation; Erik Solheim, CCICED Member and Senior Advisor to the World Resources Institute; Levin Zhu, Visiting Professor of Management Practice at Tsinghua University and former President and CEO of China International Capital Corporation; and Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, delivered opening remarks. The meeting was co-moderated by Wang Yi, CCICED Member, Chinese Co-Lead of CCICED Climate Special Policy Study, Member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and Deputy Director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change; Bernice Lee OBE, CCICED Special Advisor and Research Director, Futures, Hoffmann Distinguished Fellow for Sustainability, Chair of Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator Advisory Board, Chatham House - Royal Institute of International Affairs; and Lei Hongpeng, Global Director for Climate and Chief Representative of China at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. At the end of the event, Wang Yi delivered closing remarks.

Experts at the meeting agreed that global climate governance is constrained by factors such as trade barriers and supply chain competition, amid a poly-crisis the world is facing, including economic slowdown, energy shortage, and climate disasters. To cope with these challenges, they proposed to highlight the issue of common interest—international climate cooperation—and seek a coordinated path of green transformation that can both accelerate economic recovery and ensure security, and coordinate short-term goals for growth and long-term goals for the low carbon transition. The experts also laid emphasis on systematic reforms for the transition and said countries should strive for coordinated advancement in technology, investment, capacity building, and governance. They stressed the role the market can play for the low carbon transition, saying that we should learn from the experience of the market and enterprises from their transition practices and use incentives such as carbon pricing and carbon taxes to propell effective climate actions. They argued for more private investments in clean and decarbonization sectors by multilateral development banks and for better collaboration between the public and private sectors. The experts also called for global collaboration in trade and supply chain, i.e. more cooperation between China, the United States, Europe, and developing countries in the realms of investment, financing, and technology transfer, in an effort to enhance the resilience of the global supply chain and accelerate the green transition.

The experts recognized China’s pivotal role in advancing global low carbon development. They expressed their hope for more communication and cooperation between China and the United States at the national, subnational, and local levels after the historic Sunnylands Statement between the two countries recently, saying that they expected these efforts could potentially help resolve differences in global energy transition and climate governance and lay a solid foundation for a successful COP30 in 2025. They hoped that the CCICED Climate Special Policy Study will continue to provide timely and forward-looking recommendations for climate change decision-making, and further facilitate international cooperation and dialogue on this existential topic.