On September 8, 2021, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Energy Foundation China (EF China) and the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASISD) organized an online and offline open forum on the sidelines of the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) under the theme of “Implementing China’s 2030/2060 Carbon Targets and Empowering a High-Quality Development.” Over 170 experts from China, the United Kingdom, Europe, and other countries explored the implementation of a systematic socio-economic transformation through a new economic growth logic, centering on two topics: key actions needed to achieve the Paris Agreement and synergies between short-term economic recovery and medium and long-term climate goals, and policy pathways toward carbon neutrality.

Even as the world is still struggling to recover from the global pandemic, we are constantly reminded of the urgency of the climate crisis by increasingly frequent extreme climate events. As part of the response, countries and regions exceeding 70 percent of the global economy have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by the middle of this century. Combining a stable economic recovery in the short term and the zero-carbon transition in the longer term is crucial to the success of such commitments. Experts at the forum believed that we should not fulfill emission reductions at the expense of the economy and should instead coordinate growth, energy security, GHG mitigation, and pollution reduction, among other objectives. Green development is an important driver for future economic growth. We should lay equal emphasis on natural, human, social, and material capitals, and invest with a new growth philosophy. Only in this way can we realize the goals of the Paris Agreement and achieve robust economic recovery, they argued.

The experts said that the implementation of China’s carbon neutrality goals would rely on viable policies and the active participation of all stakeholders. For example, setting plans for climate change legislation, optimizing the current enforcement system for energy consumption and intensity targets, speeding up the national carbon market, finding a pathway with coordinated targets, technologies, funding, and policies, identifying policies for major industries and sectors, innovating green finance tools, and enhancing multilateral cooperation via Track II dialogue, information sharing and capacity building with developing countries, and platforms such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15, G20, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and UNFCCC’s COP26.

As a special advisor of CCICED, Ji ZOU, CEO and President of EF China, said that China’s carbon emissions have decoupled from economic growth and are close to a peak. Its economic structure is undergoing an expedited transformation to high added value and low emissions, while achieving carbon neutrality targets are helping shape a new model of sustainable growth, he said.

Many leading experts also attended the forum, including Shijin LIU, Chinese Chief Advisor of CCICED; Scott Vaughan, International Chief Advisor of CCICED; Baoxing QIU, CCICED member and Counselor of the State Council; Lord Nicholas Stern, Director of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the London School of Economics and Political Science; Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation; Tianyi WANG, CCICED member and Chair of China Everbright Environment Group; Hideki MINAMIKAWA, CCICED member, President of Japan Environmental Sanitation Center and former Deputy Officer of the Ministry of Environment of Japan; Huaqing XU, Director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation; Baoliang ZHU, Chief Economist of the State Information Center; Francesco La CAMERA, CCICED member and Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency; Nick Mabey, Founder and CEO of Third Generation Environmentalism; and Jos DELBEKE, European Investment Bank Chair on Climate Policy and International Carbon Markets at the European University Institute and former Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. Yi WANG, member of standing committee of the 13th National People’s Congress and Vice President of CASISD, and Kate Hampton, CCICED member and CEO of CIFF, presided over the forum.