CLIMATE CHANGE: UK EFFORTS IN SOUTHWEST CHINA TO ENCOURAGE A

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000264 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAID EFIN PREL PGOV PINR SENV KGHG SUBJECT: CLIMATE CHANGE: UK EFFORTS IN SOUTHWEST CHINA TO ENCOURAGE A LOW-CARBON ECONOMY REF: A) CHENGDU 166; B) CHENGDU 163 CHENGDU 00000264 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (U) This message contains sensitive but unclassified information. Not for distribution on the Internet. ¶2. (SBU) Summary. Chongqing leads SW China in moving towards a low-carbon economy, with Guizhou lagging furthest behind, a UK official told Consul General. Chongqing owes its lead to the "internationalist" perspective of Party Secretary Bo Xilai. Bo has encouraged foreign companies (e.g. Ford) to produce lower carbon products (e.g. green cars) to compete with those from China's coastal provinces. Chongqing's "Energy Saving Committee" has been giving out grants primarily to larger state-owned enterprises, with smaller private firms largely left out. The UK has several climate change projects in SW China, including: one to promote "Low Carbon Zones" modeled on the "Special Economic Zones (SEZs)" of the 1980s; a "green credit policy" for lending to the steel and iron sector; and a pilot project to encourage cities to incorporate low-carbon goals in their municipal planning. Chongqing passed but Sichuan flunked the National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) recent report card on achievement of 2008 goals on reducing energy and pollution relative to GDP. End Summary. Convincing SW China "To Take Climate Change Seriously" -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The UK Consulate General in Chongqing has three staffers with a modest budget but a major goal: encouraging Chinese officialdom in southwest China "to take climate change seriously," UK Climate Change and Energy Consul Bryn James told Consul General recently. The success of the four administrative regions within his consular district (Chongqing Autonomous Municipality, and Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou Provinces) in reducing CO2 emissions is "varied," with Chongqing the most advanced, and Guizhou the least (refs A and B). Guizhou has 50 billion tons of easily recoverable coal, which may be why the mayor of Guiyang (Guizhou's capital) recently declined to talk about climate change. This being said, James added, Guizhou officials have shown interest in carbon capture and storage. ¶4. (U) [Note: The NDRC, in its report card on energy savings and emission reductions per unit of GDP released on October 29, gave Sichuan Province a failing grade for have reached less than 50 percent of its target. The other provinces in SW China got mediocre grades of between 50 - 60 percent of their target achieved. These provincial goals for the last year of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-11) were pursuant to the national goal of reducing energy consumption relative to GDP by 20 percent over five years, and reducing pollution emissions relative to GDP by 10 percent. Details at tinyurl.com/2008-prc-energy-intensity. End Note.] Chongqing, Under Bo Xilai, is Leader on Low-Carbon Efforts -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Chongqing's lead in reducing carbon emissions is largely due to its Party Secretary, Bo Xilai, who James described "as an internationalist, not a traditionalist." Bo Xilai has told the UK Consulate General that, even though Chongqing is like "a developing province within a developing country," it has achieved CO2 emissions well below China's national average. Chongqing officials claim to be meeting the 11th Five-Year Plan's objective to increase energy efficiency by 20 percent. Two ways the municipality is doing this is by boosting the efficiency of its existing heavy industry, and shifting to higher-tech, lower-polluting industries. Chongqing Iron and Steel, for example, is building a new main plant, to be operational within six months, which will be at least 20 percent more energy efficient and give off less CO2 than the aging plant that it will replace. CHENGDU 00000264 002.2 OF 003 ¶6. (SBU) Bo Xilai is also encouraging foreign-invested companies based in Chongqing to introduce innovative, low-carbon products that would also give his municipality a competitive edge vis-`-vis China's coastal provinces, James said. For example, Bo recently convened his once-per-year summit with foreign CEOs, including Alan Mulally of Ford, which has a huge joint venture in Chongqing (ref A). Bo urged Mulally to produce green cars locally. ¶7. (U) Parts of Bo Xilai's "Five Chongqings" initiative (ref A) are consistent with climate change goals: "Green Chongqing (reforestation, air pollution)," "Smooth Chongqing (public transport)," and "Livable Chongqing (building energy efficiency)," James noted. In terms of building energy efficiency, Chongqing is one of the four autonomous municipalities in China (along with Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai) that were given tougher goals under the 11th Five-Year Plan to boost energy savings in new buildings (65 percent improvement, versus 50 percent for the rest of China). Towards this and other energy savings goals, the Chongqing municipality's "Energy Saving Committee" gives out grants, primarily to the largest energy consumers, James explained. Because of this, the beneficiaries of this assistance tend to be state-owned enterprises (SOEs),not privately owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),he said. Three UK Projects: "Low Carbon Zones," "Green Credit Policy," and Aid to Municipalities in Low-Carbon Planning -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) James explained that the UK is now sponsoring 30 climate change projects in China, and shared the details of three with direct linkages to southwest China: A) Moving Chongqing toward a Low-carbon Economy (Sept 2009 - Oct 2010; 382,000 Pounds Sterling). The project summary states that "Low Carbon Zones (LCZs)," modeled on the Special Economic Zones established in the 1980s, could be the key to decisively shifting China toward a low-carbon economy. If China established zones LCZs that "go beyond business-as-usual in promotion low carbon production and consumption, then the European Union would offer extra investment, aid, joint R&D, and other sweeteners." The project would also work closely with another pilot project in Jilin, James explained, where UK and Chinese academics are working on a "road map" to a low carbon economy that is to be discussed by the NDRC in Beijing sometime in November. The researchers examined three ambitious scenarios for Jilin, the most ambitious of which had CO2 peaking there in 2020, in part through the use of carbon recapture. B) "Green Credit Policy" in Sichuan's Steel and Iron Sector (April 2009 - March 2011; 243,000 Pounds Sterling). The project will assist the China Banking Regulatory Commission (Sichuan Branch),the People's Bank of China (Sichuan Branch),and the Sichuan Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau to jointly issue environmental guidelines for local financial institutions when they lend to the steel and iron sector. Chongqing, Guizhou, and Yunnan will issue similar guidelines. C) Moving to a Low-carbon Economy Under Different Economic Circumstances (April 2009 - September 2011; 310,000 Pounds Sterling). The project seeks to have four demonstration cities, including one large and one small city (Guiyang and Zunyi respectively) in Guizhou Province in underdeveloped, western China, and one large and one small city (Jinan and Dongying) in Shangdong Province in richer, coastal China, integrate low-carbon action plans into their municipal development plans. (Note: James briefly mentioned that a town in Sichuan devastated by the May 2008 earthquake, Guangyuan, would be a similar pilot city under another UK-sponsored project whose partner was China's Academy of Social Sciences.) CHENGDU 00000264 003.2 OF 003 ¶9. (SBU) James added that, while the Sichuan "Green Credit" project was off to a good start, the Chongqing Low-Carbon Economy project had become "mired" in differences between the UK consulting firm hired to implement it (ERM),and the Chongqing Academic of Social Sciences. In all 30 UK-funded projects, he explained, the PRC Government has insisted that at least 50 percent of the aid money be given to a Chinese organization that must also be the project lead. Chongqing officials in this project have been jealous of the high salaries paid to the UK consultants, whose relations with their Chinese partners have also been hurt by a lack of language fluency in Chinese. Ambiguity over Definition of "Low-Carbon Economy -------------- --- ¶10. (SBU) Speaking more broadly, James recalled that his SW Chinese interlocutors like the phrase "low-carbon economy," but have no clear definition of what this means. When they do try to define it, it is usually in terms of an early focus on energy efficiency, with carbon emissions peaking at some point in the future. The UK Consulate in Chongqing recently sponsored a Chinese delegation to the UK, which came back supporting inclusion of language in the 12th Five-Year Plan promoting a low-carbon economy. (James also recalled that Chinese President Hu Jintao recently discussed notable cuts in China's carbon intensity by 2020 as part of the PRC's position at the forthcoming December climate change talks in Copenhagen. James also stressed that provinces need a measuring system to assess carbon intensity that is "MRV" (measurable, reportable, and verifiable) - "something that Beijing has opposed so far in international negotiations.") BOUGHNER