Former UN Under-Secretary-General Erik Solheim says China is standing out as a proactive force in global climate governance and is making significant contributions to addressing the most pressing environmental challenges thanks to its "enormous development" in the green energy transition.
Solheim was speaking in an exclusive interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) ahead of the United Nations Day, which falls each year on Oct. 24 and marks the anniversary of the UN Charter entering into force in 1945.
One of the central goals of the UN is working towards fulfilling its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, with protecting the environment being one of the core aims. Regarding this, Solheim pinpointed three major global environmental issues -- namely pollution, climate change, and the destruction of ecosystems -- as being the biggest areas of concern.
However, despite highlighting the severe damage being caused on ecosystems by the effects of deforestation, the former UN official noted there are positive signs, including China's efforts to establish the world's largest national park system by 2035, after the country designated over a million square kilometers as national park space in order to better protect wildlife species and their habitats.
"If you ask me what is the biggest [issue], I tend to believe it's the destruction of ecosystems, because we have had such a reduction of rainforests, [and in] a lot of other very vulnerable ecosystems, we have seen the number of animals in many parts of the world coming down. However, there is also now good news in this area - China's now embarking upon the biggest national park system in the world in parallel with the United States. It's the biggest tree-planter in the world. Indonesia has reduced the deforestation rate in Indonesia to zero through good policies by the government and responsible action by business. So, there are good news we can learn from to tackle these," he said.
Solheim also China's experience in solving pollution offers a valuable lesson to the world, and said the country is well ahead in its promises to hit peak emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.
"It seems to the credit of China that it's one of the few nations which will deliver upon its promises prior to the [targeted] date. It seems that the peak emissions in China was either last year or at the very latest, this year, so six years before the promise of 2030. This is of course thanks to the enormous development of green energies in China. Two-thirds of all solar and wind energy on the planet last year came in China alone. One-third was the rest of the world combined," he said.
Solheim also hailed the developments he has seen after visiting a groundbreaking solar power plant project in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which he said further demonstrates how China is well on track in its green energy transformation and to fulfilling the commitments made in the climate change agreement drawn up in Paris in 2015.
"Just recently I went to Xinjiang, just outside of Urumqi, which has the biggest solar plant in the world. It's four gigawatts. Most people don't really know how much is four gigawatts. Four gigawatts is as much as the total grid in Nigeria, which is the biggest nation Africa [by population]. Four gigawatts, just [from] this one plant is more than the grid in most nations in the world. So it's an enormous development just this one plant and you see these plants coming up now all over China, [such as in] Gansu, Inner Mongolia, so many other places. And this is of course why China has been able to reduce its emissions prior to the promise, which was made in the Paris [Agreement] process," he said.
China delivering in efforts to address global climate change: former UN official
