EU Calls On China To Stop Building Coal Plants And Contribute To A Climate Fund For Poor Nations

BEIJING, China (AP) – According to the European Union’s top climate official, China should cease building new coal-fired power plants and contribute to a worldwide fund to assist impoverished countries affected by climate change.

The EU climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, discussed these issues in “intensive and open conversations” with his Chinese counterparts ahead of the United Nations climate negotiations, which begin in Dubai at the end of this month.

Europe and the United States have argued that wealthy emerging economies such as China and Saudi Arabia should also contribute to the fund. According to Hoekstra, what is true for the European Union and North America should be true for any country in a position of economic and geopolitical dominance.

EU Calls On China To Stop Building Coal Plants And Contribute To A Climate Fund For Poor Nations

“And that means driving down emissions and doing your fair share in covering the bill for those who cannot,” he said.

Given the gravity of the situation, “every single country with the ability to pay and contribute should contribute,” he said.

The climate fund for underprivileged countries should have been mentioned in China’s environmental ministry’s statement. According to the report, Ecology and Environment Minister Huang Runqiu informed Hoekstra that he is looking forward to cooperating with the EU to ensure a successful United Nations climate meeting. He said that success would contribute to developing a fair, rational, cooperative, and win-win strategy to address climate change.

Hoekstra applauded recent Chinese government steps to address methane gas emissions, another greenhouse gas, but said more has to be done.

EU Calls On China To Stop Building Coal Plants And Contribute To A Climate Fund For Poor Nations

Last week, China unveiled a methane gas action plan, and a joint US-China climate statement issued this week contained an agreement to collaborate on the methane issue.

Separately, the European Union achieved an agreement this week to decrease methane emissions from the energy sector across the 27-nation union. According to researchers, coal mines and oil and gas fields are key producers of the emissions, which are the second leading cause of climate change after carbon dioxide.

China has been building coal power plants at an alarming rate, owing to electricity shortages in some sections of the country’s south during a heatwave and drought in the summer of 2022.

“Even though at times of scarcity, you might need to scale up a bit, that is a far cry from building new coal capacity,” says Hoekstra. “That is, of course, something we would rather not see and about which we are critical.”