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STORY: UN / CHINA CLIMATE PRESSER
TRT: 02:09
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: CHINESE / NATS
DATELINE: 22 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY
22 APRIL 2016, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
2. Wide shot, Xie Zhenhua approaching the stage
3. Wide shot, reporters at press briefing
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change, China:
“Over the same period, 2005 to 2015, our energy mix has been optimized consistently. The percentage of coal went down from 72 percent to 64 percent over the 10 year period. By 2020, it will be reduced further to below 60 percent.”
5. Med shot, reporter asking a question
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change, China:
“We hope that the US (United States) domestically would try to accede the Paris agreement as soon as possible, and China in the statement also announced that prior to G20 we will do the necessary procedures in order to lead to the ratification by China of the Paris agreement so these two joint statements lent political imputes to the signing of the agreement.”
7. Med shot, reporter asking a question
8. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change, China:
“But that will require a fundamental revolution, nothing short of a revolution, in the way of consumption and production. In the history of humankind, I’m afraid, this revolution is inevitable and all of us are aware of this. But we have priorities. The first thing that we have to address is coal, because emissions caused by the burning of coal are tremendous. Therefore we have to control the consumption of coal. When we look at fossil fuels, there are ways to very effectively, efficiently, and cleanly utilize fossil fuels.”
9. Zoom out, press conference ends
On the side lines of the historic signing of the Paris climate agreement in New York, China’s special representative for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, said his country will work even harder to reduce its omissions and made a commitment to achieve peaking of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.
Xie said in 2015, China’s carbon emission had been reduced by 38 percent in comparison to 2005. He said his government estimates that carbon emissions will be further reduced by 18 percent by 2020 exceeding the previous target of 40 to 42 percent.
Xie said, “over the same period, 2005 to 2015, our energy mix has been optimized consistently. The percentage of coal went down from 72 percent to 64 percent over the 10 year period. By 2020, it will be reduced further to below 60 percent.”
Xie noted that a good agreement is only 10 percent of the success and the rest lies in the implementation. He said China stands ready to work with all the relevant actors to turn international leader’s political will into concrete actions in promoting the multilateral process and redouble efforts in preparing for a join response to climate change.
Xie said that cooperation between China and the United States since 2014 contributed to bringing about the Paris agreement. He said a recent joint statement by the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to signing and bringing the Paris agreement into force which “lent political imputes to the signing of the agreement.”
Xie said the target is to ensure that the 2 degree Celsius scenario is achieved. He said this “will require a fundamental revolution, nothing short of a revolution, in the way of consumption and production.”
Xie said “this revolution is inevitable and all of us are aware of this” and the priority is to address the consumption of coal “because emissions caused by the burning of coal are tremendous.” He said “there are ways to very effectively, efficiently, and cleanly utilize fossil fuels” but “we need to use new technologies because traditional technologies will not help us achieve our emission targets.”
175 States signed the Paris Agreement today at the UN headquarters in NY of which 15 deposited instruments of ratification. The Paris agreement aims to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
