On February 1, 2024, after renewing diplomatic ties with Nauru, a former ally of Taiwan, Qian Bo, China’s particular envoy to Pacific Island nations, expressed China’s willingness to cooperate with Nauru in combating local weather change. This initiative is a part of a wider development in China’s engagement with creating international locations on environmental points.
Over the previous decade, China has undergone a major shift in its stance on local weather change. Opposite to his predecessors, who highlighted local weather fairness and underscored China’s standing as a creating nation, President Xi Jinping’s strategy redefines China as a world chief in local weather motion.
Xi’s rebranding technique goals to attain two principal objectives: to cut back worldwide interference on China’s home environmental points and to leverage China’s superior clear power applied sciences to stabilize its diplomatic ties. By addressing nontraditional safety points corresponding to local weather change, China seeks to strengthen and broaden its alliances, as exemplified by its collaboration with Nauru. On this context, China’s environmental diplomacy is a software for advancing broader political and strategic pursuits in areas the place it lacks robust conventional safety bonds.
China’s Earlier Passivism on Local weather Points
Traditionally, China positioned itself because the world’s largest creating nation, framing its strategy to local weather change inside the narrative of local weather fairness. This stance was used to rationalize its restricted obligations, casting China extra as a participant than a pacesetter in international local weather governance.
Chinese language officers emphasised that creating nations had been unfairly burdened by the historic carbon emissions of wealthier international locations. In response to worldwide strain, China contended that, given its decrease greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions per unit of GDP in comparison with developed nations, it was the duty of wealthier international locations to guide in emission reductions and to share their inexperienced expertise with the creating world.
Even after turning into the main GHG emitter and the world’s second-largest economic system within the early 2000s, China continued to invoke local weather fairness to justify its adherence to “non-negotiable” voluntary commitments. This stance was evident on the 2009 Copenhagen Convention, the place China resisted any further worldwide obligations past its present commitments. Furthermore, China rejected the thought of “China-U.S. co-governance” in local weather issues, denying any authorized or factual foundation for such a job. Beijing continued to emphasise the first duty of developed international locations in main and funding local weather options
China’s Pivot to Local weather Management Beneath Xi Jinping
Since taking the helm in 2012, Xi Jinping has considerably elevated China’s position in international governance. From his preliminary interactions with the worldwide press as president, Xi has been vocal about China’s dedication to “proactively undertake extra worldwide obligations.” This ambition was quickly complemented by the launch of the Belt and Street Initiative (BRI) and the introduction of three vital international initiatives: the World Growth Initiative, World Safety Initiativeand World Civilization Initiative. By way of these efforts, Xi has aimed to redefine China as a accountable rising energy, positioning it as a pacesetter inside a world governance framework that advantages Beijing.
Concerning local weather change, Xi framed it as a worldwide problem, advocating for international cooperation and pledging “new” contributions to deal with the difficulty. This marked a pivotal change from China’s earlier reluctance to have interaction in shared local weather governance with the US. The 2014 joint local weather announcement with then-U.S. President Barack Obama signified China’s acceptance of serious local weather obligations, showcasing a willingness to imagine a management place in international local weather governance for the primary time.
On the 2015 Paris Convention, Xi reiterated China’s position as “an energetic participant” in addressing local weather challenges. Past mere declarations, he took concrete motion by establishing a 20-billion-yuan fund for local weather change to help creating international locations within the World South with their local weather points.
In stark distinction to the US, which retreated from its local weather management by exiting the Paris Settlement in 2017, China continued to affirm its position as a dedicated chief in local weather governance. Instantly following the U.S. withdrawal underneath Trump, Xi declared China’s unwavering help for the Paris Settlement. In that very same yr, Xi articulated China’s ambition to take up “the driving seat” in worldwide local weather change negotiations. He made vital commitmentstogether with objectives to peak carbon dioxide emissions earlier than 2030, obtain carbon neutrality by 2060, and halt the development of recent coal energy initiatives overseas.
Deflecting Worldwide Stress by way of Local weather Management
Nonetheless, Xi’s commitments to deal with local weather change seem pushed by motives past environmental issues alone. A noticeable discrepancy exists between his public declarations on local weather governance and China’s precise coverage implementations. Regardless of positioning itself as a pacesetter in international local weather initiatives, China’s home actions towards lowering fossil gas utilization stay tentative. In 2022, amid power shortages, Xi declared, “China gained’t cease burning fossil fuels till it’s assured that clear power can reliably exchange them.” Whereas China is hesitant to part out fossil fuels inside its borders, it actively urges different international locations to decide to “cooperation” in local weather points.
Xi’s embrace of local weather management may very well be seen as an effort to counteract long-standing worldwide criticism of China’s environmental passivity, aiming to cut back overseas interference on its home affairs. By strategically positioning itself as a proactive chief in international local weather governance, China has shifted from opposing worldwide local weather norms to redirecting international consideration from itself to creating areas by way of initiatives like South-South cooperation and the BRI Worldwide Inexperienced Growth Coalition.
This strategic pivot, coupled with its progress in clear power expertiselocations China as a key participant in international local weather discussions, leveraging its technological developments to help creating international locations. Consequently, the worldwide discourse has advanced, now putting much less emphasis on pressuring China to adjust to international local weather requirements and extra on its management in fostering local weather motion within the creating world.
Strengthening Diplomatic Ties by way of Local weather Cooperation
Opposite to the US, which prioritizes army coalitions and strategic alliances, China’s diplomacy predominantly depends on fostering financial interdependence. This concentrate on financial ties is pragmatic, however with out significant value-sharing that deeply influences host international locations, it will probably rapidly turn out to be unstable when China experiences an financial downturn. To mitigate these dangers and make clear its geopolitical motives, China has turned to addressing nontraditional safety points like local weather change.
Participating in local weather cooperation and distributing clear power applied sciences permits China to current itself as a dependable ally, even with out fast financial features. This strategy strengthens its ties with neighboring international locations, cultivating a dependence on China’s management to navigate the complexities of nontraditional safety challenges successfully.
This strategy is especially vivid in local weather finance and technical cooperation, exemplified by entities such because the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution (AIIB) and the Silk Street Fund (SRF), which have initiated a spread of renewable power financing packages all through Asia. In 2019 alone, Chinese language funding in solar energy initiatives inside the ASEAN area reached $10.4 billion. Regardless of tensions within the South China Sea, international locations like Vietnam and Indonesia have benefited from investments by Chinese language clear power companies.
Furthermore, China’s efforts to help local weather change mitigation in international locations like Nauru, whose very existence is threatened by local weather change, spotlight its strategic use of local weather diplomacy to domesticate potential allies. This complete technique not solely bolsters China’s affect within the area but additionally underscores the importance of local weather diplomacy inside its overseas coverage framework.
