We face a new era of climate crisis. The July of 2019 is the hottest month on record, and the years from 2015 to 2019 are the hottest in human history. The level of CO2 in the atmosphere is at its highest point in human history; climate-related devastations strike more often than ever, with droughts, hurricanes, heatwaves and landslides regularly attacking our planet, causing huge economic loss to countries and to individuals.
The clock is ticking. According to the Intergovernmental Panel (委员会) on Climate Change, we need to collectively ensure that global temperature rise does not go beyond 1.5℃. This means we must reduce emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality (碳中和) by 2050.
Faced with this reality, it is impossible to ignore that human development can only flourish if the natural world flourishes. This is the precondition of the UN Sustainable Development Goals that have become more urgent in the next decade. How can we, the global community, work together as one?
As the second largest economy in the world, China has played a critical part in committing to the Paris Agreement and its leadership and commitment are decisive in achieving the goals. The country has made remarkable progress in developing its green economy, with more than 125 billion dollars' investment (投资) in renewable energy in 2017. New renewable energy jobs in China now outnumber those created in the oil and gas industries.
As the global challenge does not respect national borders, climate change is an issue that requires solutions to be cooperated at the international level, with demands for all developed countries taking up greater responsibilities, and for developing countries moving toward low-carbon economy. In the meantime, as the world's most populous country and one of the largest carbon emitters, China can play an even more vital role in dealing with global climate change by mostly applying its enormous potential for emission reduction.
Climate change is running faster than we are and we need to have a much more ambitious approach in what we do in order to defeat climate change—as this is a race that we can and must win.
