We can’t solve the climate crisis without China, head of German environment body says

China and Germany may have differing views on coal but they can still learn from each other on decarbonising industry, according to the head of the German Environment Agency.

Dirk Messner, who has been president of the agency since 2020, also said interaction with China was critical in fighting climate change.

“China for us is very important because it is a big economy and also a large emitter,” Messner said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in Beijing.

“One-third of all global [carbon dioxide] emissions are coming from China, so without China, we cannot solve the climate crisis.”

He said China and Germany had similar industry structures and could learn from each other and cooperate on decarbonising the car, steel and concrete industries.

China is the world’s largest manufacturing power, accounting for about 30 per cent of global manufacturing output. In Germany, industry is the foundation for economic development, making up about a quarter of the nation’s GDP.

Beijing has set a target for the nation’s industrial sectors to reach peak carbon emissions before 2030 under a plan released in August. That is in line with President Xi Jinping’s 2020 pledge for China to hit the emissions peak by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Messner was in Beijing in late April for talks with his Chinese counterparts under the Sino-German Track II Dialogue on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The dialogue was launched in 2020 but last month’s meeting marked the first in-person talks.

Issues on the table included long-term emission reduction schemes, data and transparency, loss and damage due to climate change, and biodiversity conservation, according to Messner.

He said China was progressive in the electric vehicles sector.

“China is driving the electrification of mobility. I think it’s very important because the Chinese mobility system is large,” he said.

“In Germany, we also have a strong car industry and many of our car companies are working in China, so there is joint learning, cooperation and competition at the same time.”

But Messner raised concern over China’s continued approval of new coal plants in recent years.

“The most important driver of emissions in China is coal. How to move out of coal and to build a more flexible renewable energy structure is … something which is very important,” he said.

China approved more new coal in the first quarter of this year than it did for the whole of 2021, according to a Greenpeace report in April.

It said that in 2022, at least 90 gigawatts of new coal power was approved – five times the total capacity approved in 2021.

German climate envoy says coal is not the answer to China’s energy security

Meanwhile, Germany is moving away from coal. Its cabinet approved a draft law in November to phase out coal-fired power plants in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia by 2030, bringing forward the previous target of 2038.

Messner said it was imperative for countries to transform their energy, mobility and industry structures.

“The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] is arguing that we have to halve global emissions every decade,” he said.

“To become climate neutral by mid-century, we need to accelerate – in China and in Europe likewise.”