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With this year marking the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the firming up of confidence, living up to responsibilities, and deepening cooperation in his video remarks at the United Nations Climate Summit on Thursday.
Global climate governance, as President Xi stressed, is entering a key stage.
Eighty years ago, the founding of the United Nations marked a new chapter in global governance, ushering in an era of international cooperation focused on peace, development, and collective security. Today, eight decades later, the world stands at a new crossroads amid unprecedented turbulence and transformation.
Global governance faces profound challenges. The resurgence of Cold War rivalry, rising protectionist sentiments, and unilateral actions have strained multilateral cooperation. Meanwhile, transnational challenges such as climate change, persistent inequality, health crises, and security threats continue to escalate, demanding more effective and inclusive governance.
The contemporary international order is showing signs of fatigue, manifested in the underrepresentation of developing countries, erosion of institutional authority, and a limited capacity to respond swiftly to crises. This calls for reforms to build a system that truly reflects contemporary realities and the aspirations of the global majority.
In this context, the China-proposed Global Governance Initiative (GGI) has provided guidance for reforming and improving global governance.
Take climate change as an example. While traditional climate governance structures have struggled with fragmented responsibilities, with certain countries repeatedly withdrawing climate funds and impeding international collaboration on this front, China, through the GGI, advances a principle-based, inclusive approach to international climate cooperation.
On Thursday, President Xi announced the country's new nationally determined contributions (NDCs), including making new energy vehicles the mainstream in new vehicle sales, expanding the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market to cover major high-emission sectors and basically establishing a climate-adaptive society, among others.
China has been taking concrete actions in line with the requirements of the Paris Agreement. By 2023, China's forest coverage had surpassed 25 percent, with its total forest stock exceeding 20 billion cubic meters. The annual carbon sequestration capacity of China's forests and grasslands has exceeded 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, ranking the country first worldwide, according to recent reports submitted by China to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Importantly, China promotes more equitable climate governance, recognizing the developmental needs and capabilities of different countries. The country actively supports developing countries through technology transfers, financial aid, and capacity building to help them adapt and thrive sustainably. The GGI framework emphasizes that climate action is a collective responsibility that necessitates solidarity and collaboration, thereby steering global climate governance toward shared success.
By October 2024, China, as a proactive leader in South-South cooperation, had signed 53 memoranda of understanding on climate change collaboration with 42 developing countries and carried out nearly 100 projects aimed at climate mitigation and adaptation. Moreover, China implemented over 300 capacity-building initiatives related to climate, providing training for more than 10,000 participants from over 120 developing nations.
In the meantime, China has launched the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on Green Development in cooperation with 31 countries, and established the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition, which includes over 150 members from more than 40 countries.
"We have the resolve and confidence to deliver on our commitments," Xi said on Thursday, calling the international community to step up actions to realize the beautiful vision of harmony between man and nature, and preserve planet Earth.
As the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, the imperative to adapt and improve global governance has never been clearer. China has laid out a concrete vision for a more equitable and effective global governance system, embodying China's commitment as a responsible major power to promote sustainable development.
As the international community navigates unprecedented challenges, China's solution offers an inclusive framework for building a resilient, sustainable, and equitable global governance architecture, advancing the goal of a community with a shared future for humanity.
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