Climate change has gone mainstream in China’s economic policymaking. China is also now an active player in global climate governance, working with the international community and through key bilateral relationships to achieve the Paris goals. China submitted an updated Nationally-Determined Contribution at COP 26 in Glasgow. The challenge now is to ensure that there are no implementation gaps between China’s national-level climate pledge and actions on the ground.
To help push forward progress on national targets, iGDP tracks China’s performance on its periodically updated NDCs, builds models of the country’s national long term strategy, and provides information on China’s climate actions through the Carbon Neutrality Tracker data platform. At the subnational level, iGDP conducts research on zero-emissions planning to assist China’s regional governments in setting local long-term climate goals and designing action plans. iGDP also pushes forward into new areas for climate action such as non-CO2 greenhouse gases, climate-safe cooling, and food system emissions. To promote bilateral dialogue among key climate stakeholders, iGDP organizes workshops and conferences, including a recent US-China climate dialogue at Tsinghua University, and COP side events.