A Landmark Initiative to Translate China's National Climate Change Programme into Local Action


    BEIJING, June 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- A joint initiative was launched today to assist provincial governments in China to take action on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
    Entitled "The Provincial Programmes for Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation in China," this initiative is a joint effort between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) under Ministry of Commerce, the Government of Norway and the European Union (EU), aimed at translating China's National Climate Change Programme into local action in priority provinces. 

    The programme will receive a generous contribution of $2 million from Norway and $400,000 from UNDP China, while a further $2 million contribution is under review by the EU. Further international partners are expected to join the landmark initiative. 

    As highlighted at the UN Climate Change Convention last December in Bali, of key concern in combating global climate change is the need to move from global dialogue to local action and to create new innovative partnerships. While the National Climate Change Programme and several new national priorities were enacted in 2007 to set the vision for future action, much effort is needed to see results on the ground.

    "While new national policies have been enacted to set the vision and overarching direction for climate change mitigation and adaptation in China, more work is needed to translate such policies into on-the-ground action," said Kishan Khoday, Assistant Country Director and Team Leader for Energy & Environment with UNDP China. 

    A total of 14 provinces will be supported for development of local climate change strategies and policies to both reduce emissions and take adaptation measures. The programme will help establish new local institutional mechanisms, undertaking strategic assessments of ways to mainstream climate risks into development policies, and design of a series of new Provincial Climate Change Programmes in priority provinces in Western and Northern China. 

    "The consequences of global warming are emerging and the impacts of climate change are already being felt," Khoday said. "As highlighted in the 2007/2008 UNDP Global Human Development Report, climate change presents a daunting challenge for sustaining over the next decades the hard won gains of many developing countries, including China. Through this new programme, climate risks will be explored in key vulnerable areas of the country and concrete local strategies and actions will be designed," Khoday added. 

    On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, for example, the project will help local governments to find integrated way to adapt to the adverse effects of Himalaya glacial melting. These glaciers are the world's second largest store of freshwater and feed seven of the great rivers of Asia; however, they are receding at a faster rate than any glaciers on the planet. Their disappearance jeopardizes the water security of hundreds of millions and would erase decades of development gains in the region. 

    "The risks from future impacts of warming will vary between and within provinces. If measures are to have a real effect in coming years, swift action must be made at the local level to develop policies, partnerships and implementation capacities," said Khoday.

    In addition, the project will work with Chinese local government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the largest coal producing provinces of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia by improving efficiency and pollution controls in local industries. In Ningxia and Gansu Provinces, climate change and water shortages threaten to undermine food security. The project will work with governments to develop action plans to for crop adaptation and increase water efficiency to mitigate the effects of warming on agriculture.  
 
    UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men to build better lives in China. As the UN's development network, UNDP draws on a world of experience to assist China in developing its own solutions to the country's development challenges. Through partnerships and innovation, UNDP works to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and an equitable Xiao Kang society by reducing poverty, strengthening the rule of law, promoting environmental sustainability, and fighting HIV/AIDS.   http://www.undp.org.cn
 
SOURCE  UNDP China