Artur Runge-Metzger Photo: Courtesy of the Delegation of the European Union to China

Editor's Note:

The Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 provides a global framework for a transition to climate-resilient economies. The European Commission in 2018 presented a proposal for an EU long-term strategy, which envisions a climate-neutral economy by the year 2050. It has been submitted for consideration by EU member states and the European Parliament, hoping to steer its way to the UN in early 2020.

Global Times reporter Lu Wenao (GT) recently had an interview with Artur Runge-Metzger, Director of Climate Strategy, Governance and Emissions from Non-Trading Sectors of the European Commission (Runge-Metzger), on the cooperation between the EU and China on combating climate change.

GT: How will the European Union make sure the strategy will be implemented effectively within the bloc?

Runge-Metzger: Europe is a group of countries and they are very different in economics and livelihoods. It's one of the big tasks for the European Union to make sure that everybody is coming on board and everybody is moving forward together. 

The function of the strategy is to exactly make this discussion happen. It's not only a discussion among member states in Brussels where they come together to have official meetings, but it's also important to take the whole discussion to the capitals of the different countries in Europe. 

We have a similar discussion in the European parliament, and they already had a resolution. Gradually you bring onboard the different member states at the present point in time. Most of the member states are supportive of the strategy. But that's only the first step. 

If all the member states decide to set this new objective of a climate-neutral Europe by the year 2050, we will then have to turn this into legislation which will then become binding for all the member states, or it will become binding for businesses in Europe, like the emissions trading. 

GT: What will be the costs if the EU fails to cap the warming at 1.5 C by 2050?

Runge-Metzger: European Union emissions only represent 9 to 10 percent of global emissions. So even if we pursue our plan, we have to make sure that the same is going to happen for the other 90 percent of the global emissions. And so we will have to, in the coming years, continue to show leadership internationally to make sure that all the other countries are not only doing what they have promised under the Paris Agreement, but they also increase their ambition over time. 

We will have to also cooperate, on the technical side, sharing our experiences with them on how to develop the policies and implement them. This is necessary, if we fail to keep temperatures to around 1.5 C in the longer term, it will have severe economic consequences. 

We have calculated that for the European Union, for instance, it will mean probably a loss of 2 percent of the GDP in 2100. There will be losses because of bad weather resulting in floods and storms, and the scale will  not only double, but we think there will be a five-fold increase as compared to what we have today. 

GT: As the US has pulled out of the Paris accord, joint global efforts in countering global warming have been impaired. Will the EU continue to pressurize the US?

Runge-Metzger: Yes, and we will do that in many ways. It's disappointing that the federal administration is saying President Trump wants to move out of the Paris agreement. 

We will first lead by example showing it can be done, also showing that it is beneficial for your future economic growth, resulting in the creation of jobs, thus demonstrating that the battle against climate change is not detrimental to you. 

We will also work with the sub-national constituents because what we see in the United States is large chunks of the population think that climate change is happening and something needs to be done. 

GT: Though China's CO2 emission remains high, yet it has put a lot of efforts these years on the use of renewable energy sources. Do you think it has set an example for developing countries in decreasing CO2 emission?

Runge-Metzger: Yes. The action China is taking, when it comes to the rollout of renewable energy, is giving a good example to many developing countries. 

In the context of the balance and the Belt and Road Initiative of China, these experiences can also be rolled out in the neighboring countries of China, to use renewable energy at a much larger extent than before. And on the technical side, China has the expertise, and the technology is available that it can share with the neighboring countries. 

GT: In which specific areas can we see cooperation between the EU and China on combating climate change?

Runge-Metzger: We have established cooperation over the last few years, which is functioning very well, and it has many different aspects. It starts with discussions of the impacts of climate change. 

The scientists on both sides are working together to help each other to make better models for better predictions when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Formulating a long-term strategy and doing the analysis in a proper manner that is robust is being done by the scientists. Teams in Europe and China are already working together for quite some time, checking each other's models, showing how things can be done better in the modeling sphere. It's a lot of technical and scientific work, and this has been broadly expanding. 

Besides, China is also cooperating in many areas with the European technological and scientific projects and sharing views on technological exchange. Furthermore, when it comes to renewable policies and emissions trading, we have a very close and successful cooperation with China for many years. 

In Europe, the member states are very diverse. China experiences something similar because the Chinese provinces are also very diverse in terms of their economic opportunities. So we have the same challenges in ensuring that the transition is socially fair for all segments of the population. 

GT: How do you think is the public awareness in China of climate change? 

Runge-Metzger: To our knowledge, there is a rising awareness of climate change in China. Like in Europe, the Chinese citizens also experience that the weather is changing, and it's getting hotter.  

We also have many more natural disasters than we had in the past. We see the Himalayan glaciers melting; in our case, it's the Alps and northern Europe. Thus making people feel climate change is real. 

GT: Many countries in the world rely heavily on coal-fired power plants, as clean energy sources like nuclear power face  public scrutiny. In this scenario, what do you think is the most effective way to tell people that clean energy like nuclear power is safe?

Runge-Metzger: If you look at the long-term strategy that the EU has been preparing, you will see that nuclear energy is going to play a significant role in Europe in the future. It's something many member states are planning to expand. 

But we also have the opposing member states that want to move out of nuclear energy. And they will have to find a technical way forward, bringing in renewable energy, to a much larger extent to make sure that they also replace old nuclear capacities that they might have had in the past. 

We have a lot of technological choices when it comes to clean energy and every country can exploit that in the way they deem possible, acceptable and also economically viable. 

GT: What do you think are the challenges ahead in de-carbonization? 

Runge-Metzger: The challenges are to make people understand how old a viable future is going to look like? Because many will ask: Do we have the technologies that we need to get to the green future? And I think the answer is yes. 

The second question is: If these technologies are more expensive, how are we going to finance that? We will have to find an answer to that. 

And the third question is: What will happen to certain areas like coal, where we will have to phase out, and how many jobs are going to be affected? How are these people going to find new jobs in technologies that have a future? 

We need to respond to all these questions, and only then politicians will be ready to accept this as an objective. 

And then comes the biggest question: How do you implement it in terms of policies? And there's a wide range of instruments. 

There are many different ways that you will have to consider, and everybody will have to find their own way forward. The policies will never look identical across the whole world. 

GT: People are saying that it's unfair to set an emission limit on developing countries, as they need to grow their industry. What's your opinion on that?

Runge-Metzger: What we can see is that you can grow your industries with technologies that do not emit CO2. 

If you have to build new infrastructure, now you have the choice among different technologies, including renewable energy. Prices have come down so much in the last decade. If you look at the longer term, in terms of maintaining the technology and the input, you need oil to run it. 

The sun comes for free, if you have a solar panel, the initial investment is expensive, but it can run for a very long time. And you don't have to pay the sun for using its energy. And the same is true for the wind. You just have to harvest that naturally. 

Of course, the whole transition in itself is going to take decades. So this change has to be made gradually, and everything cannot be changed overnight.