#44 A Matter of Principle: China's Developing Country Status in International Climate Negotiations

In short:

• In international climate negotiations, China has identified itself as a developing country since the early 1990s, which means it is exempted from climate finance commitments and less pressured about taking on an absolute emission reduction target.
• For China the issue of developing country status is a matter of principle, grounded in the fact that its global identity is and has always been strongly linked to solidarity with the developing world.
• The EU is pressured by developing countries and NGOs to provide more climate finance and reduce emissions faster, whereas it considers China a superpower and big polluter that could also do more, whilst recognizing its impressive contribution to energy transition at home and through its Belt and Road Initiative financing scheme.
• In raising the issue, the Netherlands and other European countries and NGOs could highlight the developing country status of other richer countries. In addition, they need to be careful in copying Global South-narratives.
• Addressing the developing country status of China outright is unlikely to be constructive in a context where both China and the EU have a joint interest in the global energy transformation to reduce fossil fuel use and mitigate climate change. 

• A forthcoming emissions credit system to meet the 5% flexibility target of the EU’s new emissions reduction target for 2040 may provide a renewed opportunity to negotiate with China on if and how the China and the EU can cooperate on climate change.  

   

Authors

Louise van Schaik is Head of Unit EU & Global Affairs. She also coordinates Clingendael research in the field of climate change and sustainability. In her research she has extensively analysed the EU’s diplomatic performance in various fields, among others climate change, energy, health and food standards. She has also published on related research areas such as EU foreign policy, EU climate change and energy policy, EU research policy, climate-security and scarcity of natural resources and raw materials. She is often asked as a commentator on European affairs, geopolitics and sustainability issues. 

Ties Dams is a Senior Research Fellow at the Clingendael Institute. His research focus is on Europe’s great power competition, particularly with China. How does China’s ascent impact Europe’s evolution as a geopolitical actor? Educated as a political theorist in Utrecht, Xiamen, Hongkong and London, Ties has a particular interest in the power of narrative. How do great powers tell stories to project geopolitical influence? Bridging the gap between the philosophical and the strategic, he is a member of the EEAS’s Expert Roundtable on Foreign Information Manipulation and Influence, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats’ expert pool, and speaks broadly about strategic communications, soft power strategies and influence activities.

Pieter Pauw is an assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he conducts research and provides policy advice on international climate finance and climate policy. Pauw is also an associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Clingendael Institute. Previously, he worked at the FS-UNEP Centre of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and at the German Development Institute (DIE – now IDOS) in Bonn, where his research focused more on questions of climate finance, climate justice, adaptation to climate change in developing countries, and other themes within international climate politics. Pauw also worked for a year at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is active as a consultant.

Contributing authors: Steven Verburg, Sander Chan and Ellen Schepers