The flags of Britain and the UN stand next to each other in the conference room before the Procedural Opening of the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct 31, 2021. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / POOL / AP)
China's special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said that Beijing will "honor its word" and peak emissions before 2030, as he encouraged other nations to back up climate targets with detailed action plans.
Speaking to media at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow on Tuesday, Xie said that China is already taking concrete action to achieve its ultimate aim to reach net zero emissions before 2060.
If we are to only focus on 1.5 C, it means we are destroying this consensus between all parties … And maybe countries will demand a reopening of negotiations if we are to change the target to only 1.5 degrees, and that will be a long process.
Xie Zhenhua, China's special climate envoy
"We not only make promises, we honor our word," Xie said. "We have already released an action plan for peaking emissions."
In response to calls from some stakeholders for the Paris Agreement to change the global warming limit to 1.5 C－instead of its current range of 2 to 1.5 C－Xie said he did not support any plan which could jeopardize previous progress.
"If we are to only focus on 1.5 C, it means we are destroying this consensus between all parties," Xie said. "And maybe countries will demand a reopening of negotiations if we are to change the target to only 1.5 degrees, and that will be a long process."
Xie also called on developed nations to make good on the promise of $100 billion in annual climate financing for the developing world, a goal that was missed last year.
"Developed countries have largely failed to honor their commitment for climate finance, which has a negative impact on mutual trust between developed and developing countries."
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At the World Leaders Summit at COP 26 on Monday, United States President Joe Biden expressed his regret that his predecessor, Donald Trump, had taken the US out of the Paris Agreement.
Xie Zhenhua, China's special climate envoy, attends COP 26 in Glasgow on Nov 1, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
"I guess I shouldn't apologize, but I do apologize for the fact that the United States, in the last administration, pulled out of the Paris accord and put us sort of behind the eight ball," he said. "We will demonstrate to the world the United States is not only back at the table but, hopefully, leading by the power of our example."
Participants were eager to hear from India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his country entered the conference without an updated pledge on emissions' reductions.
China's special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua also called on developed nations to make good on the promise of $100 billion in annual climate financing for the developing world, a goal that was missed last year
"By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions," Modi said, adding that India is aiming to meet half of its energy needs from renewable power by 2030.
In a written statement sent to the leaders summit, President Xi Jinping reiterated the country's commitment to reducing emissions.
"We will foster a green, low-carbon and circular economic system at a faster pace, press ahead with industrial structure adjustment, and rein in the irrational development of energy-intensive and high-emission projects," he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his frustration at the lack of progress made on climate change. According to new UN projections, current emissions' reductions pledges from COP members, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, will miss the 2 to 1.5 C target by a wide margin.
Guterres said that as things stand the NDCs will "condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7 degree increase".
"We are still careening toward climate catastrophe," Guterres said. "We are digging our own graves."
READ MORE: 'One minute to midnight' says Johnson as COP26 opens
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is the host of COP 26, likened global warming to a doomsday device, counting down toward disaster.
"It's one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now," he said.