This year’s Annual General Meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a high-level international advisory body set up by the Chinese Government to provide suggestions on environmental issues, was held virtually from June 13-16, with the theme of Building an Inclusive, Green and Low-carbon Economy. NRDC’s President and CEO, Manish Bapna, spoke at the opening of the plenary session in his capacity as an international member of CCICED. 

Photo by IISD/ENB 

Manish made three points in his talk. The first was on energy security. He stressed that diversified clean energy sources with smart integration technology will ensure ultimate energy security. While recognizing 2022 as a difficult year for the world on energy supply, he said we must not forget the world is still hurtling down a path toward catastrophic global warming. He stressed the importance of maintaining momentum on advancing renewable energy and energy efficiency and phasing down coal power to ensure concurrent achievement of energy independence and carbon neutrality. 

Manish’s second point regarded financial stability. He elaborated why climate risk is one of the biggest long-term financial destabilizers, causing climate disasters and other physical climate risks and economic transition challenges. He recommended that CCICED support policy research focused on climate finance, especially on transitioning carbon-intensive industries.  

The final point Manish shared was on Nature-based Solutions (NbS). He noted that NbS can provide over 30 percent of cost-effective mitigation needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and has become a buzz word, but much still needs to happen at the implementation level. He underlined the importance of mainstreaming NbS in China’s climate action. 

Photo by NRDC   

In a subsequent sub-forum of CCICED, NRDC’s China Program Director Jieqing Zhang, also stressed this view during her keynote presentation. She pointed out that NbS are effective and indispensable for tackling the dual challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. The forum is based on CCICED’s special policy study on NbS, which NRDC supported.