Meeting less than a month before the Paris Climate Change Conference, French President François Hollande and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that the outcome expected in Paris should include provisions for a five-year review of progress toward reaching long-term emissions goals.
The Presidents released a statement following the meeting, explaining that "the results of this stocktake will inform parties in regularly enhancing their actions in a nationally determined manner."
2 November 2015: Meeting less than a month before the Paris Climate Change Conference, French President François Hollande and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that the outcome expected in Paris should include provisions for a five-year review of progress toward reaching long-term emissions goals. The Presidents released a statement following the meeting, explaining that “the results of this stocktake will inform parties in regularly enhancing their actions in a nationally determined manner.”
During the Paris Conference, scheduled to take place 30 November – 11 December 2015, the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC is expected to adopt a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force to take effect in 2020. The Chinese and French leaders, who met on 2 November 2015 in Beijing, China, discussed various aspects of the anticipated Paris package, including transparency, finance, technology, capacity building, adaptation and pre-2020 ambition.
On pre-2020 ambition, the statement supports the adoption of a working program on accelerating implementation in terms of mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation. China and France also suggest convening a “facilitative dialogue” in 2017/2018 to “take stock of any progress made and explore the possibility of further enhancing pre-2020 action and support.”
In their statement, the leaders emphasize the need to transition to green, climate-resilient and sustainable development, highlighting that both countries recognize the importance of formulating 2050 national low-carbon development strategies. They state their intention to make their respective 2050 strategies available “as early as possible in the next five years.”
In addition to emphasizing their unilateral commitments, the two sides agreed at the meeting to enhance their climate change cooperation through, among other things, exchanges on low-carbon infrastructure, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon transportation, low-carbon urbanization, circular economy, adaptation and carbon markets. The two countries will share best practices, technology research and development (R&D), and joint investment on third markets.
The leaders also launched the China France Working Group on Green and Low-Carbon Economy to facilitate bilateral dialogue and practical cooperation, agreeing to continue exploring opportunities for cooperative projects in areas of mutual interest. Further, both sides committed to substantially increasing their public investments in low-carbon energy technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) by 2020. [China and France Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change]