Achieving green goals together
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China faces significant challenges on the domestic front, too. The target responsibility system for evaluating the performance of provincial and local officials in meeting their energy and major pollutant emission reduction targets provides a strong incentive for officials to pursue environmental and climate objectives alongside economic development goals. Yet ensuring the quality of data in this process is an acknowledged challenge.
Over the last few years, China has begun disclosing a wider range of energy efficiency performance data, lists of outdated facilities that must be removed from use and other information in the service of achieving its environmental and energy targets.
But not much else is known about the systems of review that China is using to evaluate the quality of this information and to verify the performance of lower-level officials. Broadening the public disclosure of information and strengthening the domestic system for data review will enhance China's ability to meet its targets and move forward with its domestic agenda.
Improving the transparency of every country's actions to fight climate change and reduce emissions is no trivial issue. By increasing the frequency and depth of reporting its actions and emissions, China can provide a useful model for other developing countries and get the international recognition it deserves.
As part of the Copenhagen Accord reached last December, countries accounting for more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions have already committed to undertaking specific actions to fight climate change. The Cancun conference needs to re-affirm these pledges and countries should be prepared to report on their progress in implementing these actions over the past year.
Developed countries should be prepared to show substantive progress on the other key agreement reached in Copenhagen - finance for developing countries to adapt to and fight climate change, use of clean energy and reduction in deforestation. The $30 billion in prompt-start funds pledged by developed countries last year must be turned into real money to lead to meaningful actions on the ground.
The two linchpins of a future climate agreement - greater transparency on actions and emissions, and increased financing for developing countries - are interdependent in the negotiations. It is unlikely for one to move forward without progress being made on the other.
Specifically, developed countries and developing countries both should be subject to greater transparency, though the exact form will vary from one country to another. Countries should also agree on the details of the global fund envisioned at Copenhagen. Such a fund, if properly implemented, could help mobilize and implement the ramp-up in climate funding that the Copenhagen Accord calls for. Interim reporting guidelines and a common reporting format for prompt-start funding should be created to build trust and ensure transparency around climate finance.
China and the US can come up with constructive ways to address differences on key issues and show the world how moving toward a low-carbon economy is in every country's interest. Both countries will benefit from tapping into the growing demand for clean energy and both will benefit by ensuring that the worst impacts of climate change are avoided.
The two countries have never been more dependent on each other to achieve their climate and energy priorities, and to ensure the health and well-being of their peoples.
Barbara Finamore is China program director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Jake Schmidt is its international climate policy director.
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