COP26 - What are China's real intentions?
China has been keen to emphasise its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and has announced a target to achieve a 65% reduction in the emissions intensity of its economy by 2030.
However, some analysts have suggested that all is not as it seems. While Xi Jinping has been keen to talk up China's green credentials, he has been happy to allow the construction of a spate of new coal power stations. He has also been clear that China will not allow itself to be dictated to by the West, and has refused to attend COP26 in person.
What does China really want? Joining Net Zero Watch's Harry Wilkinson to discuss this vital topic are Professor Jun Arima, David Rose, Professor Gwythian Prins and Patricia Adams.
You can watch a full recording of the webinar here:
Our panellists:
Prof. Jun Arima
Jun Arima is an economist and Professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy in the University of Tokyo. He began his career in Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, has served as Energy Advisor to the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the OECD, as well as Head of the Country Studies Division of the International Energy Agency.
David Rose
David Rose is a broad spectrum investigative writer on many aspects of UK and world affairs.
He was winner of the News Reporter of the Year award in the Society of Editors British Press awards for 2015, shortlisted for 2017 and winner of the Feature Writer of the Year award for 2018.
Prof. Gwythian Prins
Professor Gwythian Prins is Research Professor Emeritus at the LSE where he directed the Mackinder Programme. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
He was Convenor of the Hartwell Group on Climate Change and Energy 2007–19.
Patricia Adams
Patricia Adams is an economist and the executive director of Probe International, a Toronto-based NGO that has been involved in the Chinese environmental movement since its beginnings in the mid-1980s through the publication of books such as Damming the Three Gorges and Three Gorges Probe, a news portal published in English and Chinese.
Read more on the topic
Click images to download
The Worm in the Rose
Gwythian Prins (October, 2021)
Eco-Fundamentalism as Grist for China’s Mill
Jun Arima (October 2021)
The Red and the Green
Patricia Adams (December, 2020)
How China made a mockery of Boris Johnson's great green jobs boast
David Rose, Daily Mail (October, 2021)