In his speech delivered at the general debate of the 75th UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward that China will achieve the goal of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The 14th Five-Year Plan clearly stresses the importance of the control of methane and other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions, and insists that efforts to tackle climate change should be put high on the agenda.

     Li Gao, director of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at the meeting that methane emission reduction as well as relevant investment and financing will be further promoted in accordance with the 14th Five-Year Plan. Methane is the second largest greenhouse gas (only after carbon dioxide). In the next 30 years, if the global methane emission can be reduced by 50%, the global temperature will be reduced by 0.18℃, which is one of the important prerequisites for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement and one of the important starting points for mitigating and coping with climate change.

Li Gao, Director of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment； Director of Climate Investment and Finance Association.

     An investment and financing system is an important part of efforts to promote methane control and international cooperation in methane emission reduction, and it is also a manifestation of China’s active fulfillment of international commitments. Li said that methane emission reduction should be one of the major focuses and highlights of climate investment and financing, and it should be closely combined with the establishment of NDC project pool and meanwhile with local pilot projects. And we should encourage oil and gas enterprises to actively participate in global practical cooperation to cope with climate change, promote the development of climate initiatives and actions in the oil and gas industry, and actively join in the battle against methane emission through international cooperation.

Ye Yanfei,  Inspector of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission; Special Adviser to Climate Investment and Finance Association. He said that it is necessary to strengthen field visit and monitoring of methane emission, and we should work to improve the standards of the ecosystem.

Mo Xiaolong, Deputy Director of China Clean Development Mechanism Fund Management Center, Ministry of Finance; Deputy Director of Climate Investment and Finance Association. He stressed the role of market and goverment in climate investment and finance and more direct funds shoulg be provided so as to support the green and low-carbon development of real economy.

Lei Yao, Deputy Director of Institute of Finance of People's Bank of China; Deputy Director of Climate Investment and Finance Association. He stated that it is necessary to tackle climate change in an orderly manner for the financial sector, guide and encourage the financial system to strengthen its support for emission reduction in the real economy.

Zhang Jianyu, Vice President of Environmental Defense Fund(EDF). He said that EDF would work actively under the guidance of 14th  Five-Year Plan and make more contributions to the oil and gas sub-sectors.

     Climate change respects no borders. At the just-concluded high-level strategic dialogue between China and the United States, the two sides had "frank and constructive exchanges", although "there are still major differences on some issues". However, according to the consensus of China-US high-level strategic dialogue, China and the United States will work to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change, and will establish a joint working group on climate change in the future. On the basis of the commitments made in Paris Agreement, China has set higher targets for the peak time of carbon emissions and long-term carbon neutralization, and the United States has re-applied to join Paris Agreement. China and the United States should  cooperate on urgent tasks of the international community such as climate change on the basis of mutual trust, mutual understanding .

     Addressing climate change has become the consensus of the international community. China hopes that the international community will further strengthen unity and solidarity, stay on the correct track of tackling climate change, actively promote the "green recovery" and sustainable development in the post-COVID era, always adhere to multilateralism under the framework of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.