New Perspectives for Chinese South-South cooperation

September 2017 - On 5 September 2017, the AHK Greater Beijing, as the implementing organization of the Climate Markets Cooperation Project supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conversation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), informed over 30 participants about the framework and prospects of China's South-South Cooperation on climate change, its linkage with the Paris Agreement mechanisms and the options for enhanced South-North collaboration. SSC is recognized as an increasingly important dimension of international collaboration for tackling climate change.

Niels Vestergaard Knudsen, Assistant Country Director – Team Leader South-South Cooperation for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented the outcomes of a research study conducted by UNDP on partner countries' opinions of China’s climate change support. Overall, all participating countries highlighted the fact that SSC places particular emphasis on individual and institutional capacity building and technology development and transfer, rather than merely providing financial support.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion between Thomas Forth, Advisor to the BMU and Xinyuan Wen, South-South Cooperation Project Manager at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) of China. Forth pointed to cooperation and sharing benefits as the pivotal points in order for both, the SSC and the Paris Mechanisms, to be successful. In this context, Xinyuan Wen presented the 10-100-1000 programme as a promising opportunity for cooperation not just between government and government, but also including other stakeholders, such as the private sector.

Further Information

The September issue of the Econet Monitor magazine, which is published by the environment experts at AHK Greater China in Beijing, contains an in-depth article on the networking meeting. The article is available for download here.